The Other Side of the Coin
by Baron Zed
Summary: Ranma falls into a different spring. While cursed in his girl form, she can't use any ki and has a useless energy she doesn't know how to use. How will Ranma cope when his only joy in life can be taken from him with a splash of cold water?
1. Chapter 1: Cursed!

Ranma and his friends were created by Takahashi Rumiko. This is fan fiction written for enjoyment.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This story has Ranma falling into a spring that has a curse that makes it so he can't use ki at all while in his cursed girl form. Eventually, he will be able to learn magic while a girl to compensate for it. Because of the different curse, Ranma will be somewhat out of character from canon, even while a boy, being more insecure and more thoughtful.

This story owes some inspiration to fanboy913's story Ranma of the Shield, which can be found on this site. That story also has girl Ranma being able to use magic better (although she can still use martial arts-she's just not as good at it as he is due to different stats). This story takes that concept to the extreme and omits any RPG elements that Ranma of the Shield has.

This story also has a minor cross-over that I haven't listed because it's minor and won't show up for at least 7 or 8 chapters. The characters from the other source will be secondary characters and won't be used in the way they normally are. The guest stars' source material also won't be important to this story. I've decided to leave the guest stars a surprise.

This story is planned to have multiple story arcs.

* * *

Ranma came up out of the pool with a gasp. The first thing he noticed was that he felt weak. He could not feel his ki. With a few moments of introspection, he determined that he did have ki; it was just a miniscule amount. He could never remember having so little without being exhausted. The peculiar thing, besides the amount, was that it seemed bound to a strange energy within him so that he could not make it circulate.

The second thing he noticed was that everything looked odd. There were odd glows coming out of the pools. The glows formed shapes vaguely reminiscent of animals and people hanging over the pools. He looked at the panda that had knocked him into the pool he was treading water in. An image of his father superimposed the panda.

The third thing he noticed as he stepped out of the pool were breasts—his own. He gave himself a once over and noticed that his once lean, but powerful build was now rail thin—except for the modest-sized breasts and gently flaring hips. He felt his arms and they were like sticks with hardly any muscle tone. His own body had a glow to it that rivaled the pools, but he could not make anything out of it.

Anger bubbled up inside him. His idiot father had gotten himself turned into a panda and then turned him into a girl. With the anger came the energy she had sensed before. She did not know what it was—only that it was not ki. She tried to use it like ki, to make her body move faster, but it only poured off of her in useless waves.

"Pop! You idiot! I'm going to kill you!" she roared. She flinched at the high, shriek-like quality of her voice.

The panda took off running. She ran after him, but found that the panda quickly out-distanced her. Her speed was far slower than it had been when she was still a he. In frustration, she returned to where she had seen the man in the rumpled green uniform.

"Ah, Young Mr. Customer fall into unknown spring. Unknown tragic story. Turn into three-eyed girl."

"Three eyes?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, Young Mr. Customer has third eye in forehead," the man said.

Cautiously, Ranma approached one of the pools and looked at her reflection. Sure enough, there was another eye in her forehead, framed by her now-red hair. With some experimentation, she found she could close the extra eye which caused her vision to go back to normal. The reflection was blurry, but it appeared that her extra eye disappeared when closed. She probed the area and felt a horizontal seam where the eye had been. The area was a little squishy, like her normal eyes were when they were closed.

"Come," said the man. "I get you hot water. Temporary cure for curse."

"I can become a guy again?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, but only temporary," said the man. "Cold water activates curse. Hot water deactivates curse."

"Is there a permanent cure?" Ranma asked.

"This one not know," he replied. "Don't think so. Maybe Amazons know?"

"Amazons?" she asked.

"Tribe of warrior women. Live close to here. Elders very wise."

"Is there a boy or man pool?" she asked.

"Yes," said the man, "Pool of Drowned Boy. Tragic story of boy who drowned 1200 years ago. Whoever fall into pool turn into boy."

"How would that interact with my current curse?" she asked.

"This one not know. Maybe replace. Maybe merge."

A mental image of a three-eyed hermaphrodite that could not use ki came into her mind and she shuddered. It was better not to chance it unless she could verify the effects.

Ranma waited impatiently for the water to heat. While she was waiting the man asked her to sign the guestbook. She put down first names only for her pop and herself with only "Japan" as their origin. With the way her pop was, she did not want anyone he angered to find them through the guestbook. The man only introduced himself as "the Jusenkyo Guide."

When the water was ready, she poured it on herself and felt her ki return and the new, useless power fade. There were traces of the useless energy still in her, but now it did not respond to her in any way. She looked down and saw that her normal form had returned. With a sigh of relief, he said, "Thank goodness. That was too awful."

Before too long, his pop the panda showed up again.

The panda held up a sign that said, **Boy, how did you change back!**

Ranma grinned and said, "I owe you a beating, Pop!"

He leaped at the panda and the proceeded to attack. The panda was tougher and stronger than his pop's normal form, but slower. The loss in speed allowed Ranma to get the upper hand—nowadays he could best his pop more often than not anyway. The only real challenge was that his father was very underhanded. When his father won their matches it was more often from pure sneakiness rather than upfront martial arts skill.

With a final kick, Ranma sent his pop flying into a tree where the panda lay dazed.

The Guide ran up to Ranma's pop and started to tell him about the curses and the activation and deactivation triggers. His pop asked about more permanent cures and the Guide again recommended the Amazon village. His pop scoffed at the idea that a bunch of women would know anything significant and the Guide just shrugged. After a minute of hesitation, his pop asked the Guide to lead the way. His desperation outweighed his chauvinism.

As they were getting ready to leave, Ranma found himself doused with water. He looked down and saw that he was a she again. She closed her third eye in order to look more normal.

"What have I done to deserve such a weak and worthless girl as a son," his father proclaimed.

Ranma ignored him and went looking to see if there was any more hot water left. She felt something coming at her from behind. She tried to move, but was too slow. Her side exploded into pain as her father landed a glancing blow on her hip. She crumpled to the ground. That was going to be a very bad bruise.

She gritted her teeth and looked at her pop who was gaping at her in shock.

"Are you really such a weak girl that you can't even take a hit, boy?" her pop growled at her.

"I don't have any ki in this form, Pop!" she said through gritted teeth. "The curse took it all away. This body is slow and weak and I can't even use ki to make it better!"

Her father was speechless.

She limped to the guide's hut and asked him to heat some water. When she changed back, he felt his ki gather around the bruise. This dampened the pain and he could feel the bruise start to fade. He rummaged through his pack for a thermos and filled it with the remaining hot water.

Without a word to his pop, he asked the Guide to show them the way. His father followed them sullenly. They had not walked for 30 minutes when a sudden downpour activated their curses. Ranma took out her thermos and used it to change back. However, another downpour activated the curse five minutes later. She used the last of the water to change again, but the reprieve did not last more than ten minutes. With a sigh she accepted the fact that she would be a girl for the next while.

The only consolation was that her cursed body seemed to be in decent shape for a teenage girl. It was nowhere close to her standards of fitness, but at least she was able to walk without tiring.

When they arrived at the Amazon village, most of the village was gathered in the village square. A log was suspended from a large tree over a ditch. Two girls were fighting. One of them was mannish, but the other was quite pretty with long purple hair. Ranma stopped to watch wistfully. The mannish woman was a brute, but the purple-haired girl was quite skilled. Ranma felt a flood of jealousy threaten to consume her. That girl had no problems using ki to fight. Eventually, the purple-haired girl's skill overcame the other girl's strength.

The crowd erupted into cheers. The girl looked happy, until something caught her attention. She started pointing and yelling in Mandarin. Ranma looked where she was pointing and groaned as she saw her pop the panda devouring a feast.

The purple-haired girl yelled at Ranma in Mandarin.

"I don't understand," Ranma replied.

"You, Outsider Girl, that your panda?" the girl said in broken Japanese.

"No," Ranma said. She had no desire to defend her pop.

"No believe you. Others say panda came with you," she said.

"The panda is a cursed man. Give him hot water and he can speak for himself," Ranma said.

"You expect this one to believe Outsider Girl?" the purple-haired girl.

Ranma was shocked. "You've never heard of Jusenkyo? It's not far from here."

The girl concentrated and then said a word or phrase in Mandarin that Ranma did not follow. "Jusenkyo just legend."

Ranma shrugged. "Test it out. I'm not planning to leave. I want to talk to one of your leaders or lore keepers anyway."

"What about, girl?" an ancient voice asked. "Jusenkyo?"

Ranma turned around and saw a short, wrinkled crone balanced on a walking stick.

"That's right," Ranma said.

"My name is Cologne. I'm an Elder of this village. Follow me, please," she said. The old woman said something in Mandarin and several women moved to restrain the panda who was her pop.

The old woman started hopping using her stick. Ranma was surprised, but followed her. They arrived at an old-fashioned home. Cologne led her inside and directed Rama to a place to sit.

"What did you wish to talk to me about, child?" the old woman asked.

"Are there any permanent cures for Jusenkyo?" Ranma blurted.

Cologne sighed. "I'm afraid not, child. You're a victim, correct? The panda too?"

Ranma sighed and nodded. "The panda is my worthless father who found out about Jusenkyo from a pamphlet and decided it was a good place to train despite not reading Chinese well."

"Is this your cursed from, child?" she asked.

Ranma nodded again.

"Were you originally male?" the Elder asked.

Ranma whispered, "Yes."

"Well," Cologne said, "I imagine the curse is somewhat disorienting to you, but it shouldn't be too bad. Over the years I have encountered a number of males who have contracted that curse and while none of them were happy about it at first, most of them adjusted. A few of them even grew to prefer being women."

"But I can't fight like this," Ranma protested. "Martial arts is my life."

Cologne frowned. "You won't get very far saying things like that in this village, child. We're a tribe of warrior women. Didn't you see the match as you came into the village? The victor, my great-granddaughter, is very accomplished."

"If I could fight like her in my cursed form," Ranma whispered, "I would be okay."

"What's stopping you, child?" the old woman asked. "Sure, you need to account for a new balance and perhaps learn new tactics and strategies, but a man's greater strength is not all it's cracked up to be."

"I can't feel my ki," Ranma whispered. She kept an iron grip on her emotions in order to keep from breaking down in tears.

"What?" exclaimed Cologne. "The springs don't work like that! If you were advanced enough to use ki, you should still be able to."

"My pop can use his as a panda, but mine is almost all gone and what I have is locked up somehow."

The Amazon Elder frowned. "Are you sure you fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl?"

Ranma shook her head. "The Guide said it had been an unknown spring." She hesitated. She did not want to be thought a freak, but she had come her for answers. The strangest thing is that I had a third eye when I came out of the spring. It virtually disappears when I close it."

She opened her extra eye. The strange glows overlaid her sight again. The old woman had a very compact, but extremely bright glow. The woman's staff had an identical glow. A few other odds and ends, glowed different colors.

The old woman fell off her staff and stared at her. "There is an old legend," she began slowly, "about an order of sorceresses that used magic to 'open their inner sight' so that they could see magic and become more powerful. The few surviving pictures show them with a third eye on their foreheads."

"I have felt a strange energy within me that I haven't been able to use," admitted Ranma. "It virtually disappears when I change back to a guy and my ki comes back. I've also noticed odd glows to things when I have my extra eye open."

"Everything?" Cologne asked.

Ranma shook her head. "The springs, Pop, myself, you, your staff, a few of the knickknacks in your house."

The Elder hummed. "I think you're seeing magic, like the legend. Perhaps ki too."

"Do you know magic, Elder Cologne?" Ranma asked hopefully. "Could you help me? I hate being helpless."

"I know a few things," the Elder admitted, "but I'm afraid I can't be too much help to you. We are a society of warrior women. We can't have women who can't fight. A woman who can't fight, but turns into a man who can would be particularly problematic in this village. I would very much like to help you develop your talents, but the price would be too high for me. To be honest, I only know small magics and could only get you started, even if I could overcome my peers' bias."

Ranma's emotions were very near the surface, and she had had a very lousy day. She struggled again not to cry.

"But little help is not no help," the old woman continued. "I have a beginner's magic book I can give to you. Unfortunately, it's in Chinese. But if you work at it, I'm sure it will help you. I invite you to stay the night here and rest and eat before you renew your travel. I'm afraid your father will need to be punished before we let him go, however."

Ranma shrugged. "It's not like he doesn't deserve it." She smiled tentatively at the old woman. "I do appreciate your hospitality and the book. Thank you."

The old woman nodded. "My pleasure. I suggest you stay in your cursed form unless you want to unintentionally pick up a wife."

"Huh?" Ranma said.

The old woman cackled.


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Nerima

The next morning, Ranma had some time before they let her father go, so she took a look at the book Cologne had given her. She only recognized about one character in five, so there was not much she could glean from it currently. She knew that written Chinese was similar to kanji, which was one of the ways that Japanese was written, but she had a lower than normal kanji vocabulary thanks to her pop and his attitude on schooling, so Chinese was out of her reach for now.

She decided to run through a kata. Her balance was off and her instincts seemed to fight her somewhat. She also felt painfully slow and her movements lacked power, but the familiarity of it calmed her. After half an hour she was starting to feel a little winded. She stopped since she figured her pop would make them travel all day to get some distance from the source of his embarrassment. Normally she could do this for hours. The change once again left her bitter.

"That was very good for someone who has just experienced Jusenkyou, child," came the voice of Cologne, "but it lacked something."

"Speed and power," Ranma said. "I could probably still do decently in a 'soft' art like Aikido, but it doesn't really suit my temperament. I prefer to be in control of a fight, rather than depending on what my opponent is doing."

"Control is an illusion, child," the Elder said. "A person who can react well to anything placed in front of them is more in control than a person who initiates actions without thought."

"I understand what you're saying, Elder," Ranma said, "but I've never the patience to control a fight that way."

The old woman fixed Ranma with a firm gaze. "When I was younger, I left the village and wandered the world. For the most part, I was disgusted by the way that the Outside World treated women, but I saw some women that seized control of their lives. These women all had three attributes for gaining control in a Man's World: patience, cunning, and the ability to swallow their pride. Now that Jusenkyo has made you half a woman, you would do well to learn these skills if you are to survive in the Outside World, especially since your normal tools are so much less effective."

Ranma thought about what the Amazon Elder had said. She could use patience; she just did not like to depend on it. She had cunning, but knew that it was very limited to a fighting environment. She knew she was very prideful, with some reason. She could out-fight most martial-arts masters she trained with—when she was male. Thinking about it she realized that pride was the primary lever that her father used to control her. With a few insults, her father could get her to do whatever he wanted.

"Thank you for the advice, Elder," she said. "I will try to implement it."

"Some of my younger colleagues have told me that the Outside World has changed its attitudes in the last few decades, but they have also said that it is mostly a thin veneer, at least in Asia. Underneath it, not much has changed.

"My last bit of advice is to figure out your dreams and goals. Make sure that they are _your_ dreams and not your fathers or anyone else's."

* * *

After breakfast, Ranma was taken to the village square where her father was changed back to a man and then beaten with 40 lashes. They were led to the front gate of the village and her pop was told to leave and never return.

They walked in silence for an hour with her father having to carry his pack in his hands. He tried to pawn the pack off on her, but the pace she could travel with two packs annoyed him enough that he took it back. They stopped and made camp early.

"Why didn't you intervene on my behalf, Boy!" her father demanded when they stopped.

"I did," she replied. "Why do you think you were only beaten?"

"What have I done to deserve such a weak little girl as my only son?" her father moaned.

"Do you want a list, Pop?" she said. "This is all your fault!"

* * *

The next weeks were hell for Ranma. They spent a month traversing China to get to the coast. Ranma spent most of it in his cursed form. His father seemed to take delight in using it to punish him under the excuse of trying to "toughen up his weak-girl son" so that he did not have such an exploitable weakness. Her father learned that the outbursts of power that happened if he got her mad enough would not hurt him, which removed the only barrier she had for keeping him in line.

The grueling training had little effect other than leaving her exhausted, bruised, hungry, and injured. Luckily, most of the injuries healed quickly when he was able to access hot water. He usually ended up as a girl at meal time, which meant that she was not fast enough to defend her plate well and did not get enough to eat. There was one odd internal injury that persisted in his girl form that had her bleeding from her private parts and cramping internally for almost a week. He knew better than to complain to his father, who would tell him to get over it and stop complaining like a "weak girl."

When they arrived at the coast and his father realized that they would not be able to swim across to Japan due to the lack of strength and endurance that Ranma's cursed form had, he was furious. This resulted in more "training." In the end, they snuck aboard a freighter and stowed away to Japan.

* * *

It was raining as they walked through the Tokyo Special Ward of Nerima to their destination. Ranma once again contemplated running away. She knew that no good would come of whatever her father had planned. The problem was that she had nowhere to go. She would end up having to steal in order to live, which did not sit well with her. She knew that her father stole for them, but at least it was not her own actions doing it.

They arrived at a gated home. It was large for Tokyo, but Nerima was far enough from downtown that it was not too unusual. The front gate read, "Tendou Dojo. School of Anything Goes Martial Arts." She sullenly followed her panda father up to the door. A girl about her age with a bobbed haircut answered the door.

"Dad," she called over her shoulder, "there's a panda at the front door."

A mustached man appeared behind the girl.

"Excuse me," the man said when he noticed her, "but why did you bring a panda to my home?"

Ranma shrugged. "I didn't. He brought me."

The man frowned. "Uh, miss?"

"Saotome Ranma," she said.

"Ranma?" the man said joyfully and latched on to her in a firm hug. The man looked down and noticed her breasts smushed against his chest and fainted. This suited Ranma fine, as she did not like to be touched, especially when she was a girl. Her lack of ki and strength made her feel vulnerable.

The girl had been joined by two others. The first girl started to poke Ranma in the chest. Ranma swatted her hand away.

"Stop that," she said.

"Daddy," the girl whined. "Our fiancé is a girl."

Her father had roused himself and said, "I assumed that Saotome's son was a boy."

The youngest looking of the girl's said, "Hi, I'm Akane, want to be friends?"

Ranma nodded in relief. At least one of these people was friendly.

"Come on," Akane said. "I'll show you the dojo."

Ranma followed her around to the back of the house.

"Do you know kenpo or karate?" the other girl asked.

"Some," Ranma answered. "I'm not very good right now due to a training accident."

"You look fine to me," Akane said.

Ranma shrugged.

"You fancy a match?" Akane asked. "I'll go easy on you."

Ranma looked at the girl. She could tell that Akane had some training, but she lacked the grace and easy movement that an accomplished martial artist naturally exuded. Ranma was curious how she fared against a "normal" martial artist.

"Sure," she said.

They walked to the center of the dojo and bowed to each other. Both girls entered ready stances. Ranma decided not to use her normal ready stance which was designed to not look like a stance because she did not have the speed to pull it off.

"Ready?" Akane asked.

Ranma nodded.

Akane charged and attacked. Ranma easily blocked her strikes, but they were punishing. The other girl was much stronger than Ranma's cursed form. Ranma could feel bruises form on her arms. This was the other girl going easy on her? Ranma decided she could not afford to follow her old I-don't-hit-girls routine and struck back. Akane's defense was lacking and Ranma got a few good hits in on her. Akane was in better physical condition than Ranma, but Ranma's greater skill allowed her to keep up and make strikes on the other girl. However, she paid the price in bruises. Finally, Ranma's lack of endurance caught up with her, and she missed a block and the hit sent her flying.

"You're better than you made yourself sound," Akane said as she helped Ranma up. "You won if we were going by points. If you were a little stronger, you would have dominated me."

Ranma shrugged. "I've developed a. . ." she paused, " _disorder_ that limits how much I can improve my speed and strength. I used to be much better."

Akane looked doubtful, but she said, "I'm glad there's another girl martial artist around. Martial arts are big in this district, but most of them are boys and _perverts_." She snarled the last word.

Ranma felt there was a story there, but was feeling too sore to be polite and ask about it.

"We have a nice furo," Akane said. "Would you like a soak?"

"That would be nice," Ranma said. Warm water would take away _his_ aches.

Akane led her inside and directed her to the furo room. "We have a yukata hanging up inside that you can borrow."

Ranma went inside and scrubbed and rinsed with cold water. She then sank into the furo to soak. The hot water changed her to him and he felt his ki start to work on his bruises. He closed his eyes and relaxed.

He was brought out of his relaxation by a scream. He opened his eyes and saw a furious, screaming Akane clutching a towel to herself. She fled the room.

Ranma sighed. It would have happened sooner or later if they stayed. Judging by the talk of fiancés, it was likely that his pop wanted to. He wondered what type of scam his pop was working. Steeling himself, he got dressed and walked downstairs.

He could hear Akane talking loudly about a pervert. When he arrived downstairs, he saw his father in his human form standing next to Akane's father.

"This is my good friend Saotome Genma," the mustached man said. "And his son. . ."

"Saotome Ranma," Ranma finished.

"But Ranma was a girl," the oldest girl said.

"Oh, the trials I must go through to have my only son cursed to turn into a weak girl," moaned his father dramatically.

"You expect us to believe that this is the same girl we met earlier?" the middle girl asked.

"It happened at a horrible place called Jusenkyo," his father began.

"The pools of sorrow?" Akane's father murmured.

"If you fall into a pool, you are cursed to take the form of whatever drowned there," his father continued.

The girls all looked doubtful.

"Allow me to demonstrate," his father said.

Ranma was a hair too slow to stop his father from throwing him through the door. He landed in the fish pond outside. Air rushed from his lungs as he became a she. She dragged herself out of the pond wheezing for breath. She lurched back into the house.

"See the tribulations I must go through?" her father moaned.

"You talk too much, Pop," she said. She grabbed a vase of fresh flowers from the table and splashed him with the water from it, after removing the flowers. She put the flowers back in the dry vase.

"Pop took me there without knowing what he was doing. He led us out over the pools without listening to the guide trying to stop us and after he got himself cursed, he deliberately knocked me into a pool."

She was guessing or exaggerating on the last bit. She was not sure whether or not her pop realized he was cursed until after she was knocked in, but she could use a bit of extra sympathy.

"So cold water activates the curse. . ." the presumed Mr. Tendou said.

"And hot water deactivates it," Ranma finished.

The oldest daughter entered the room with a tea kettle. She poured it on Ranma's pop.

"It needn't be that hot!" her father shouted, hopping around.

The girl went back into the kitchen and returned with a water pitcher and a cup. She mixed a little bit of cold water with a lot of hot water and then handed the cup to Ranma.

"Thanks," Ranma said with a smile.

She poured the water over herself and turned back to normal.

The girls' father said, "Ah, your problem is not too bad. My daughters: Kasumi, age 19; Nabiki, age 17; and Akane, age 16. Pick the one you want and she'll be your fiancée."

Ranma opened his mouth to decline when the oldest, Kasumi, said, "Oh, he wants Akane."

"What?" Akane shouted.

"I agree," said the second, Nabiki. "She hates boys and he's half girl."

"I'm not marrying that pervert!" Akane shouted.

Ranma snorted. Some friend she was. Their friendship did not even last an hour. "How am I the pervert when you walked in on me?"

"You saw me nearly naked!" she exclaimed.

"That was your fault!" he said, "and you saw just as much as me."

"It's different when a boy sees a girl," Akane protested.

Ranma snorted again. "As your sister clearly said, I'm a girl too."

"Fine!" she said and snatched the pitcher from Kasumi and threw it at him. "Be a girl then!"

Ranma's fury spiked as he felt the change. She could not do much physically to her, so she decided to hit the liar where it really hurt.

She looked down at herself. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, since I'm prettier than you anyway."

She smirked as she could tell she had scored on the other girl. Akane practically turned red as she snatched up the table and swung it at Ranma. She tried to dodge, but was not fast enough.

Pain was followed by darkness.


	3. Chapter 3: Recovery

**Author's Note:** Updated 2016-07-06 for Akane to mention bath invite.

* * *

When Ranma woke up, she was in an unfamiliar room. The lights were dim, but not off. Her pain was still present, but muted. Her thoughts were a little fuzzy and her left forearm was splinted and in a sling.

She lay and thought about her predicament. Never in a million years would she have thought a girl would do that to her just for a rude remark. That girl had serious anger issues.

Before too long, a man wearing glasses and medical scrubs came into the room.

"Hello, Ranma," he said. "I'm Dr. Ono Tofu. The Tendous brought you here after an accident."

"It was no accident," Ranma said. "That crazy girl hit me with a table."

"Oh," said the doctor. He seemed a little disappointed, but not really surprised. "Akane is usually a sweet girl, but she does have a problem with her temper."

Ranma huffed. "She seemed friendly at first, but her true colors came out."

"Well, Ranma," said Dr. Ono. "You have a concussion and a broken arm. The concussion should heal in a little over a week, but the broken arm will take a month and a half to recover enough to remove the cast that I want to put on it. You also have some bruises, but those will go away in a couple of days on their own."

Ranma stared at the doctor. That was how long normal people took to heal? No way was she waiting that long. Based on her experience, if she had access to her ki, the concussion would be gone in less than an hour and the bone healed in days. Maybe sooner—it had been a while since she had broken a bone due to her other body's ki reinforcement.

"The cast won't be necessary," she said. "I will need you to bring me some warm water and then be ready to adjust my splint."

"Warm water? Why?" the doctor asked.

"Ever hear of Jusenkyo?" Ranma said.

He shook his head. "Can't say that I have."

"It's a cursed training ground. I picked up a shapeshifting curse there. For some reason, the curse also greatly reduces my ki and locks up what it leaves. My pop also has a curse, but his doesn't affect his ki."

The doctor looked doubtful, but he said, "I don't think shape-changing with a broken arm is a good idea."

"No way am I waiting a month and a half with a cast on. Better to get it over with. I can be healed in a couple of days if I had my ki."

The doctor looked dubious, but he left and returned with a glass of warm water.

"I'm going to need you to loosen my splint, Doctor," Ranma said. "My real form has thicker arms."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Ranma," the doctor said.

Ranma sighed and opened her third eye. The doctor glowed with a large amount of ki. He had even more than Ranma did in her real body.

"I can tell that you're an accomplished ki adept, Doctor," she said. "You should know what is possible with it."

"Yes, but you have very little, Ranma," the doctor said.

"That's because of my curse," she protested. "See my extra eye? Is that normal? An old Amazon Elder I met told me that the curse replaced my ki with magic when it gave me this eye, but I haven't figured out how to use it. It's been pretty useless so far."

"Shape-changing with a broken arm is likely to be very painful," the doctor warned.

Ranma shrugged. "I'm used to pain."

The doctor sighed and loosened the splint. "What do I do with the water?" he asked.

"Pour it on me," Ranma said. "My head works."

Dr. Ono did as she asked. The doctor was right, it did hurt as she changed, but Ranma managed. He could feel his ki working on his injuries.

"Thanks, Dr. Ono," Ranma said.

"Call me Dr. Tofu, Ranma," the doctor said. "Everyone does."

The doctor re-splinted Ranma's arm. "How long do you think it will take to heal?"

"Less than an hour for the concussion and a couple of days for the arm—maybe less. It's been a while since I broke a bone. My ki is much better now."

"It's amazing," Dr. Tofu said. "Your ki level is very high now. I've never seen such ki levels on anyone so young."

"My father put me through some pretty ridiculous training," Ranma admitted. "Some of it I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but it did leave me with some serious skills—at least when Jusenkyo doesn't take them away."

The doctor hesitated. "Akane is waiting out in the lobby, she wants to talk to you."

Ranma sighed. "Send her in. Let's get this over with."

The doctor nodded and left. A few minutes later, Akane gingerly stuck her head into the room.

"Uh, Ranma," she said hesitantly. "I just wanted to apologize for hurting you."

Ranma glared at her. "No matter how rude I was to you, I didn't deserve to be hospitalized for just words."

Akane sighed. "I know. . . Circumstances at school have made me distrustful of boys my age. They won't take 'no' for an answer. I'm afraid of what will happen if I'm _not_ violent with them. I guess it just carried over to you. None of them have ever had to go to the doctor, no matter how rough I am."

"My other body is that of a _normal_ teenage girl, Akane," Ranma said. "I can't believe how much stronger you are than me when I'm a girl. Just sparring with you left bruises all over my arms."

"What!?" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Ranma shrugged. "I'm used to pain. A few bruises are nothing."

Akane seemed to sink inward.

Ranma said after a moment, "I wouldn't have been so rude to me if you hadn't lied about wanting to be my friend."

"I wasn't lying, Ranma," she said.

He arched his eyebrow. "Really? Then why did you call me a pervert without cause?"

"In my experience, all teenage boys are perverts," she said.

"So you ended our friendship over a stereotype?" Ranma said. He sighed. It's not like he was used to having a friend. It would just be. . . nice.

"It sounds so shallow when you say it like that," Akane grumbled.

"Isn't it?" Ranma said.

Akane sighed. "To be fair you neglected to tell me you were really a boy when I invited you to take a bath with me."

"What?" Ranma said. "You invited me to bathe with you?"

She looked at him funny. "What did you think I was doing?"

"I thought you were just showing me where it was!" Ranma said.

Akane shook her head. "Anyway, my experience is pretty universal. All the boys I know are perverts."

"Hey," he said. "If there's any man that knows how you feel, it's me. Some of the looks I got walking through the shadier parts of Shanghai really creeped me out." He shuddered. "I also hate the fact that my curse takes away all my ki when it's active. I hate feeling so vulnerable."

"Ki?" Akane asked. "Isn't that just a myth?"

Ranma chuckled. "It's funny that you say that, since your large strength comes from being able to utilize your ki."

"Really?" Akane said.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "You're only a little bit beefier than my girl form, but you're much stronger."

"That's kind of neat," Akane said.

Ranma nodded. "I'll say. It's great to be strong without being muscle bound. If it were a choice between being quick and being strong, I'd take quick, but it's great to be both."

"Isn't it better to be strong?" Akane asked.

"Against an opponent of the same speed, sure," Ranma said, "but in a fight, it's the quickest that wins. Dozens of weaker strikes will win out against a single big strike that can't land every time. The trick when training for quickness is to also train for endurance. If you tire too soon, the slow, strong opponent will win."

Akane looked thoughtful.

"Is there anything you like about your curse?" Akane asked after a few moments.

"I think I'm smarter in my cursed form," Ranma said.

"I knew girls were smarter than boys!" Akane exclaimed.

Ranma laughed. "I don't think it's the girl part of my curse that does it. I think it's a type of balance. My curse takes away my ki and my natural strength and gives me a kind of mental energy and increases my natural intelligence. I just haven't figured out how to use the mental energy yet like I can my ki in my natural form."

"You can use ki too?" Akane asked.

"Only when I'm a boy," he said. "The curse takes it away when it activates, which is frustrating, because Pop's curse doesn't take his away when he turns into a panda.

"I didn't used to put much stock in intelligence outside of using tactics to win a fight," Ranma continued, "but I've had a lot of time to think over the last month or so, and most of it has been as a girl, due to the weather and Pop. I haven't had a chance to test and see if I really am smarter as a girl, but I've figured out some stuff about myself and my pop that I'd never thought about before."

"Really?" Akane asked. "Like what?"

"Pop was keeping me stupid and friendless on purpose so that he could control me."

"That's awful!" said Akane.

Ranma nodded. "I think your family is the target in his latest scheme. Pop is a conman at heart. I'm just not sure how serious the con is. It could be as simple as conning me into taking over the dojo and using it to support him in his 'retirement' or as nasty as getting control over the dojo through the marriage pledge and then selling it to make a lot of money."

Akane grimaced. "That reminds me," she said. "Our fathers are set on the two of us marrying. I'm afraid that if we're friendly to each other they'll have us in front of a priest quicker than you can say 'I do.' They also want you to go to my High School and us being engaged will cause all sorts of problems there."

"Can't we just keep it quiet?" Ranma asked.

Akane shook her head. "Nabiki will sell the information. It _will_ get out. I hate to renege on our friendship again so soon, but I don't see a way to avoid it. I'm sorry, Ranma."

Ranma could not help but feel depressed. Some of it must have shown on his face because Akane looked even more guilty as she quietly left the room. Talking to her had been nice. He had almost forgotten that she had put him there with her temper.

* * *

Ranma asked to stay at Dr. Tofu's clinic while his arm healed. He told the doctor that if he left, he would get wet which would cause problems for his arm. The doctor agreed once he told him how the curse caused water to seek him out. On the one hand, the stay was nice because he went two whole days without triggering his curse. On the other hand, the clinic was boring.

After the doctor released him, he snuck back to the Tendous and stole some money from his pop's pack and left without being seen. He got directions to a used bookstore and found two books he thought would be useful for deciphering Cologne's book: a kanji dictionary and, after talking to the proprietor, a book on written Chinese for Japanese speakers.

While kanji were derived from Chinese characters (called hanzi in Mandarin), Chinese tended to use different ones than those commonly used in Japanese and there were subtle differences in the meaning between Chinese and Japanese. Japanese also tended to use less kanji because words that had a difficult or obscure kanji tended to be spelled out in hiragana (one of the Japanese phonetic writing systems) whereas Chinese only used hanzi.

His problem was where to hide the books. His pop hated it when he read. He said that it was useless for a martial artist. He had managed to hide Cologne's book from his father only because he never took it out. His pop also periodically went through his things looking for money to spend on sake, so he had gotten lucky to a certain extent. Ultimately, he decided to ask Dr. Tofu if he could keep the three books at the clinic. The doctor agreed.

When he got back to the Tendou's finally, things were much as he expected. Akane ignored him and his father ranted at him about how he should apologize to his fiancée. Ranma splashed his father in order to ignore him better.


	4. Chapter 4: Furinkan High

**Author's Note:** Small update to Chapter 3 posted.

This is not a bashing fic. It _is_ told from Ranma's point of view and he is feeling insecure and vulnerable, so he will lash out verbally and in his thoughts more than he did in canon.

* * *

The next morning, a Monday, it was announced that Ranma would accompany Akane and Nabiki to school. Ranma did not object, as he might have in the past, because he now wanted to learn things in order to figure out Cologne's book so that he could protect himself when he was in his cursed form.

Nabiki made a quick exit and Ranma was stuck following Akane to school, much to her displeasure. As was his practice, he hopped up onto the fence and started walking.

"What are you doing up there, idiot?" Akane asked.

"Balance practice," he said.

"Whatever," she replied. "Just stay away from me at school."

"As if I'd associate with a backstabbing liar like you," he said casually. He smirked when he saw her fists clench.

His smirk died when he was hit with a splash of water. She had to concentrate much harder to stay on the fence without her ki.

"I'm sorry, Miss," an old woman with a ladle said. "I didn't see you there."

Ranma sighed and turned around. She hopped down to the ground. Fence walking would take too much time with how much concentration it took her in her current state. She had given up on carrying a thermos in China because something else always caused her to change not long after. Maybe she should try again?

"Where are you going?" Akane asked.

"Back to your house to change back," Ranma replied. "There's no way I'm going to school like this."

"That'll take too long," Akane said. "Let's get some hot water at Dr. Tofu's clinic."

Ranma shrugged and followed the other girl.

At Dr. Tofu's, Ranma waited while Akane went looking for hot water. She nearly had a heart attack when she felt something hard poke her shoulder. She spun around to see Dr. Tofu holding a skeleton.

"Hello, Ranma," the doctor said with a grin. "I don't think you've met Betsy yet."

Ranma glared at him while she tried to control her heart rate. "That's a poor trick to do to someone who feels as vulnerable as I do right now."

Dr. Tofu bowed to her. "You're right Ranma. I apologize. I'm told my sense of humor is odd and I let it get the best of me sometimes."

Akane returned. "Hello, Dr. Tofu," she said, blushing. Ranma realized that the girl had a crush on the doctor.

She handed Ranma the cup of warm water. She used it to turn back to normal.

"Later, Doc," he said. Akane and Dr. Tofu also said goodbye.

The two continued to school. As they got close, Akane started growing more agitated.

"I don't want you interfering in my business, Ranma," the girl said.

Ranma shrugged. At this point, he wanted little to do with the backstabber.

"I hate boys! I hate boys!" Akane started to repeat angrily.

The dark-haired girl started to run toward the school gate. A group of boys were standing there, many of them wearing sports equipment.

"I love you, Akane-chan!" many of them shouted. "Date with me!"

They ran toward Akane and she started to lay into them with her fists. Ranma shrugged and walked around the mess. He checked in and found out where his class was. He still managed to make it to class before Akane, who was evidently in his class and was almost late.

The homeroom teacher introduced him to the class and had him sit next to Akane, to the displeasure of both.

During second period a voice shouted, "It is not to be borne!" A boy rushed into class wearing a kendo uniform and waving a bokken.

"Which of you is the foul demon Saotome?" the boy demanded.

Ranma stood. "By what right do you call me a demon, ruffian?" Ranma had noticed that his vocabulary had improved since he got his curse, even when he was not in his cursed form.

"Ruffian? Ruffian?" the boy spluttered. "Thou darest to call a scion of the noble house of Kunou a ruffian?"

"Who else but a ruffian would barge into a classroom spouting false accusations?" Ranma asked.

"One who is driven by the flames and purity of love!" the boy proclaimed while making exaggerated gestures with his bokken. He pointed the wooden sword at Ranma. "Dost thou deny that thou hast bewitched the fierce maiden Tendou Akane into agreeing to a betrothal with thyself?"

"I'm not marrying that pervert!" Akane shouted.

Ranma ignored her, focusing on Kunou. "I deny it."

"The rapacious mercenary sister of the fierce maiden Tendou Akane, Tendou Nabiki saith otherwise," Kunou declared. "While she is a lowly, money-grubbing merchant, I have never known her to tell outright falsehoods."

"I believe that you have misunderstood Nabiki," Ranma said. "It is true that our fathers have arranged an engagement, but I do not intend to fulfill it."

"Thou wilt release her, fiend!" Kunou shouted. "Or thou wilt face the wrath of heaven!"

"Are you deaf?" Ranma snapped. "I said that our fathers arranged it. Talk to Mr. Tendou if you object."

"Very well, peasant," Kunou said. "I will talk to the Tendou patriarch, but if I find thou hast been false with me, it will go poorly for thee." The boy turned around and left the room.

Ranma rolled his eyes and sat down.

The class, which had been watching the confrontation with a kind of shocked fascination, erupted into questions.

"I've said all I plan on about the matter already," Ranma said. He refused to answer any other questions, either spoken or written on notes passed to him.

* * *

Fourth period was physical education. Ranma avoided the locker room. With the way water sought him out, that was a sure way to reveal his curse and his weakness to everyone. He figured there was no way that whatever they were doing for P.E. would actually make him sweat.

The girls were playing softball while the boys were doing pullups. Since there was only room for two of the boys at a time, the rest of them were sitting around waiting their turn. A pair of boys were bugging him about Akane. He was trying to brush them off or ignore them.

The whole deal with Akane, Nabiki, and Kunou plus the nattering of his classmates was distracting him. His worryings were interrupted by a sharp pain in his temple and a belated "Heads up!"

Ranma sat up from where he had collapsed and noticed a softball rolling on the ground. Akane was standing at home plate looking embarrassed.

"Tendou!" the teacher yelled. "Take Saotome to get looked at!"

"I'll be fine in a few minutes, Teach," Ranma said.

"Nonsense," the teacher replied. "That hit you rather hard. Wouldn't want it to get infected."

"Fine," Akane said. "Follow me, Saotome."

Akane led him off the school grounds.

"Where are we going?" Ranma asked.

"Dr. Tofu's," she said.

"Doesn't the school have a nurse?" he asked.

Akane looked at him and rolled her eyes. "She's a quack. Better to go see Dr. Tofu."

Ranma shrugged his shoulders. He did not mind going to Tofu's. He was the only one in this place that seemed actively friendly.

At Dr. Tofu's clinic, Akane called out, "Hello? Dr. Tofu?" An old woman was sitting in the waiting room. She seemed to be dozing. Otherwise it was empty of people.

"Hello, Akane," the doctor replied as he entered the reception area. "Another injury?"

Akane blushed. "Not for me, Dr. Tofu."

Ranma stared at Akane. She did not look like she was embarrassed and she was certainly not red from exertion. She must be crushing on him again. He shook his head and looked at the doctor.

"Ah, Ranma," Dr. Tofu said. "That's quite the imprint on your cheek." He winked at Akane. "From the redness and depth it looks like it could be an Akane special."

Akane appeared to shrink into herself.

Dr. Tofu chuckled weakly. "I was only teasing. You did do this, Akane?"

She nodded.

"Ah, I'm sure it will be fine within a couple of hours, if not sooner," the doctor said. "Ranma heals quickly."

Left unspoken was the fact that this only happened when he was male.

The doctor went to a cupboard and pulled out some ointment. "I'm going to apply this to the bruise, Ranma. It will make it feel better and help you heal faster."

The doctor gently applied the ointment to his cheek. It felt a little cool in a pleasant sort of way.

"You two can head back to school now," Dr. Tofu said.

"Do you mind if I hang out, Doc?" Ranma asked. "I don't want to go back to school and I wanted to take a look at those books. I can't do it at the Tendou's since Pop doesn't like me learning anything not directly related to the Art."

"What kind of books, Ranma?" Akane asked.

Ranma scowled at her. "Not that it's any of your business, Tendou, but my education has been lacking thanks to Pop. I bought a kanji dictionary and another language book to see if I could catch up."

"Oh," Akane said, embarrassed.

"I don't need your pity," Ranma snapped.

"Hello? Dr. Tofu?" a voice Ranma recognized as Kasumi's called.

"See you guys later," Akane quickly said and darted out the door.

"I'll get my results later, Dr. Tofu," said the old woman who was the only other occupant of the waiting room. She ran out of the room. Ranma looked on in astonishment. Ranma could hear Kasumi and Akane exchange greetings in the entryway.

Dr. Tofu had a goofy smile on his face and a dazed look in his eyes. When Kasumi entered the room, he started dancing with his skeleton.

"Oh, Kasumi," he blabbered. "Have you met Betty?"

Kasumi giggled demurely behind her hand. "Oh, Dr. Tofu, you're so silly. I came to return some of your books."

Dr. Tofu continued to dance around the room. When he approached Ranma, he kept a cautious eye on the doctor. "Ranma!" the doctor said. "When did you get here? Have you met Betty?"

"We met this morning," Ranma said warily.

"Fabulous!" Dr. Tofu said. "Why don't you take this dance?"

"I couldn't, Doc," Ranma responded. "Books to read, remember?"

"Nonsense!" he said. "Don't be a fuddy duddy."

The doctor darted in and pressed some points on Ranma's chest which caused him to collapse to his rear on the floor. Tofu deposited Betty in his lap. The doctor glided over to Kasumi and guided her in a couple of circuits of the waiting room while she giggled.

After that, Kasumi disengaged herself and said, "I'll be by later this week for more books, Dr. Tofu. Good-bye, Doctor, Ranma."

After she left, Dr. Tofu seemed to come out of his daze.

"A little help here, Doc?" Ranma said.

"Ranma!" the doctor said. "What happened?"

"Kasumi came over and you went crazy," he replied.

The doctor chuckled embarrassedly. "I didn't do anything to bad, did I?"

"You hit some pressure points and now I can't move," Ranma complained.

"Let me fix that," he said.

The doctor hit a couple of other points on his chest and then helped Ranma up.

"What's the deal, Doc?" Ranma asked.

"She's so kind and nice and beautiful. . . I just can't help myself," Dr. Tofu said.

"I'm sure she'd take you more serious, Doc, if you got yourself under control."

* * *

Ranma stared at the book. The symbols just flitted through his mind without staying. This was the third time he had read this page. He had thought he had gotten better at this type of thing. He had even managed to pick up a fair bit of Mandarin on their way out of China—the difference was that he had been in his cursed form for most of the journey.

With a sigh he went to the bathroom and changed to his cursed form. When she returned to the book, Ranma quickly memorized the symbols and their meanings. She was of mixed feelings about the success. She was pleased to have accomplished her design, but it disturbed her that there was something she was better at as a girl. However, she felt it was connected to magic replacing her ki rather than her gender.

The book she was reading had definitions for both simplified and traditional Chinese characters. She had originally been ignoring the simplified, since the book she wanted to read did not use them, but it took hardly any extra effort to memorize them, so she did.

After memorizing about ten pages, she had a sudden thought. What if she forgot everything when she changed back to normal? Hurrying to the bathroom, she changed back to normal. When he returned to Tofu's living room, he flipped through the book again. With relief, he realized that he still remembered all the characters he had just memorized. Shrugging his shoulders, he went and changed back to a she.

As she returned to the living room, she realized that this was another trade-off. Her great skill at learning by doing and her mediocre skill at learning by reading had swapped. Her cursed form could do all the movements she learned as a male, not as fast or as powerfully, but she could do them. However, learning new katas was challenging and she lost some of her intuition on how others would move in response to her. As a girl, she could memorize facts much easier and her deductive skills seemed to be better. The facts and things she had figured out how to do remained when her curse deactivated, but making new connections with those facts while male was harder.

She picked up her book with a sigh. Her cursed form's mental abilities did not make reading the dictionary any more fun, but at least it made it quicker.

* * *

When Ranma returned to the Tendou house just before dinner, he found an irate Akane.

"Because of you Kunou has been hanging around here all afternoon!" she yelled. "We just barely got him to leave."

"And this is my problem, how?" he asked sarcastically.

"It's your fault for telling him to talk to Daddy!" she yelled.

"I'm still not seeing how this is my problem," he said.

"Argh!" she yelled and picked up the table again.

This time, Ranma was prepared. He smirked, ready to deflect the table.

Suddenly, he felt wet and his body tingled. Ranma's life flashed before her eyes. She covered her head with her arms and collapsed to the floor in fear. Luckily, Akane had the presence of mind to slam the table into the floor rather than Ranma. Her body shook under the impact of the large object right next to her.

All of her frustration at her cursed body's weakness overpowered her and a sob escaped her. She clapped a hand over mouth in horror. Her fear and anxiety evaporated as raw fury at her situation replaced it now that the situation had passed. Raw, useless power poured off her in waves. Akane stepped back.

"You homicidal maniac!" Ranma yelled. "You were centimeters away from sending me to the hospital again, if not the morgue!"

She turned to her father, who was sitting at a small table playing shogi with Mr. Tendou. "Is that your plan, Pop?" she screamed. "Marry me to the homicidal maniac to get the Tendou inheritance and then when she kills me, you claim it for yourself while she rots in prison? I vow on my _own_ honor that I will never marry this lying, backstabbing, bullying, murderer!"

She huffed as her useless power subsided. The room was dead silent. Akane made the first move as she fled the room, sobbing. Ranma could feel everyone's gaze on her. She ran to the room she shared with her father and collapsed onto her futon. Emotional exhaustion overpowered her and she fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5: Reconciliations

Ranma was awoken by her father knocking on the frame of the door. He held a plate of food and there was a kettle by his feet. Ranma was shocked. Her father _never_ brought her food. He always ate whatever he could get his hands on without remorse or pity.

"Look, Ranma," her father said. "I know I'm not the best father. . ."

Ranma snorted.

". . . but I would never do something like what you accused me of." He stared at her sternly.

Ranma rolled her eyes. She was tempted to reach for the kettle, but decided to wait until after the conversation was over. She might need the extra brain power.

"I know that, Pop," she said. "Most of the pain you cause me is unintentional."

"Then why did you say it?" he asked her.

"You don't know what it's like to have all your hard work and skills evaporate," she said. "I feel so vulnerable like this." She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. "My frustrations and anger just all bubbled to the surface." She looked at him fixedly. "You do have to admit that my comfort and safety are usually pretty far down you list of priorities."

He offered her the plate and some chopsticks. "Ranma, believe it or not, but I know what it's like to be vulnerable. The master that trained Tendou and me was very harsh and sadistic. He was also very skilled and powerful. We would still be suffering under his heel if we hadn't managed to trick him."

"Then why do you keep pushing me at Miss Red-Hot Temper?" Ranma asked as she started to eat.

"Ranma, when I set out to make you the best martial artist of your generation, I knew that there would be sacrifices. One of the sacrifices is that your career options are limited. There isn't much call for a wandering martial artist in the modern world. Your best option for a future is to run a dojo."

"And you've arranged this deal with Mr. Tendou out of the goodness of your heart?" Ranma asked sarcastically.

Her father laughed. "You know me better than that, Ranma. However, as far as my deals go, this is a good one. You and I get stability and a dojo; my old pal Tendou gets an exceptional heir to carry on his dojo."

Ranma frowned. She had never tried to teach anyone. She did not know if she would like it. She did, however, know that she loved martial arts. A thought occurred to her.

"You know, Pop," she said. "The Volcano of Rage thinks that she is Mr. Tendou's heir. I can't say that I blame her for being angry about being replaced."

Her father shook his head. "A woman can't be an heir to a martial arts school, Ranma."

Ranma arched an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you actually believe all that garbage you've spewed to me over the years. Didn't you learn your lesson in that Amazon village?"

Her father shook his head again. "I'm not going to argue about whether or not a woman can be a good martial artist, although. . ." He looked at her frown and trailed off. "Like I said, it doesn't matter how good a girl is, nobody in Japan will take her seriously as a sensei, except to train other women."

"I was serious about that vow I made earlier, Pop," Ranma said. "I won't marry her."

Her father sighed. "Tendou and I talked about it and we decided to switch the engagement to Kasumi."

"Pop!" she yelled. "You can't do this to me! Dr. Tofu likes her and I think she likes him!"

Her father shrugged. "It's for the betterment of both of our families, Ranma. She'll get over it."

"Pop!" she snarled. "He's my only friend! I can't betray him like this!"

"You're not betraying him, Ranma," her father insisted. "Kasumi's father has simply decided on an action for the good of her family."

"My. _Only._ Friend," Ranma repeated.

Her father sighed. "Ranma, some sacrifices need to be made for the sake of the art."

When her father dug in his heels like this, she knew that continuing to argue with him would only make things worse for her, Kasumi, and Tofu. "Fine," Ranma said. "I won't fight this, but I want a concession."

"What?" her father said suspiciously.

"I need a little bit of time to study most days and I want you to not harass me," she said.

"Ranma, you can study the Art whenever you want," he said.

"Something other than the art," Ranma said.

"You don't need. . ." her father started.

"Pop, I've almost _died_ twice since we've been here," she hissed, "and that doesn't even count the close calls in China."

"What do you want to study?" he asked her, still suspicious.

"I want to figure out how to use the power I have when I'm like this so that I'm not so vulnerable," Ranma explained.

"Where are you going to start?" he asked.

"The library or old book stores," she replied. She was not going to tell him she got a book from the Amazons. She would need to hide it.

"Fine," her father said. "I won't harass you as long as you keep up on your training in what _really_ matters."

Her father turned to leave and then paused. "I did truly think that Akane was the best match for you. She's interested in the Art and she's closest to your age."

"Whatever, Pop," she said, her mouth full of food. She was too hungry to waste any more time on this conversation.

* * *

After her father left and she finished her dinner, Ranma used the kettle to change back to normal. He took the kettle and plate down to the kitchen. Kasumi was finishing cleaning up.

"Thanks for dinner, Kasumi," Ranma said. "It was great."

"You're welcome, Ranma," Kasumi replied, before turning back to her chore.

Ranma wondered if he ought to say anything about the change in the engagement. Kasumi was always distantly polite to him. He could not tell if there was anything different in her manner. He had already decided not to make waves with the engagement one way or the other unless they insisted on a speedy marriage. He would have to think of some obstacles. Knowing his pop, he would not have the patience to wait until Ranma was a decent age before trying something. He decided he needed to think and went to the dojo.

The dojo was empty, so Ranma started on one of his favorite katas. Running through katas always helped him to think. He had a few things to figure out: the engagement to Kasumi and how it affected his friendship with Tofu, mastering his cursed form's magic, and figuring out if there was another way to get around his cursed form's ki limitations.

He was not ready to tackle the first item and he had a rough plan for the second, that left the last item. His cursed form had the same knowledge as he did, but she was not as fast, strong, or durable. Her reach was shorter. She _might_ be more flexible. He would need to check. The problem was that he was still not completely comfortable with his balance and limitations while he was her since his instincts kept fighting her. The problem was that developing new instincts as her was harder due to her problems with physical learning.

It was clear that a "soft" style would be better for her—one that emphasized using your opponent's movement against him. He knew the basics of Aikido, the most famous of this type of style, but he was not very fond of it. His own style was a mix of various things he had picked up over the years. He could do the same for his girl form. He started developing a kata he thought would be good for her. Ideally, he would be developing this as her, but her limitations meant that it would be best to develop the core of it in his normal form.

Once she figured out her balance and stopped trying to fight like she was in his normal form, he figured his girl form would be equivalent to a black belt from one of the commodity dojos. That was fine for fighting against one or possibly two street thugs, but Ranma tended to attract trouble that was more skilled than that. Even Akane would give her trouble after a short time. Right now the girl had some pretty big holes in her form, but unless she was stupid, fighting against someone skilled would close those up, and then her freakish strength and slightly better speed would be enough to give Ranma's girl form issues.

His musings were interrupted by Akane. "That's a weird kata," she said. "It doesn't look natural."

"I'm trying to figure out a style for my girl form," he said shortly. He did not want to talk to her, but he also did not want to set her off because that might lead to another hospital visit when he was vulnerable.

"Wouldn't it be better to do that as a girl?" she asked.

"Normally, yes," he said, "but I can figure out physical things better as myself. My curse takes away a lot of my physical abilities, including my intuition on how to fight."

"That doesn't make any sense," she said. "Being a girl shouldn't affect that."

Ranma shrugged. "I don't think it has to do with being a girl, directly. I'm stronger, faster, and tougher than you as myself, but when I'm a girl, you're much stronger, a little faster, and probably much tougher. Not a lot about my curse makes sense."

Ranma went back to working out his kata, trying to ignore her.

"Listen, Ranma," Akane said finally. "I want to apologize for my temper."

"An apology doesn't mean anything unless it actually comes with a change in the way you act, Akane," he told her waspishly.

"I know," she said, irritated. "I'll try. Could you help me by trying not to antagonize me?"

He stopped his kata and glared at her. "You said you wanted nothing to do with me. I was just returning the favor."

"You sicced Kunou on me!" she protested angrily. She then visibly calmed herself.

He shook his head. "I did not. I sicced him on your father, which I feel he deserved because he was one of the ones forcing the engagement. What did you want me to do? Defend your honor? Defend the engagement? I didn't think you'd appreciate either of those."

She folded her arms. "You could have. . ." She trailed off, clearly not being able to think of any solution.

"I figure the only way I could make you happy is to leave," he said. "I wouldn't be opposed to that, but Pop seems determined to stay. Pop isn't much of a pop, but he's all I have and I'm not ready to go off on my own."

"Could we start over, Ranma?" she asked. "I liked talking to you in the clinic and without the engagement between us, I think we could get along better." She smiled. "I could help you with your kata for your cursed side."

Ranma did not know what to think. The girl seemed nice enough, when she was not letting her temper get the best of her. However, once the switch was flipped, she seemed to not have any self-control.

"You would have to prove to me that you could keep your temper," Ranma said. "I don't really know how to be nice to people." He stared at the floor in embarrassment. "The few people I could call friends were always getting mad at me and I don't want to live in fear of an ill-timed glass of water." He looked at her and said, "I won't call you a backstabber if you don't call me a pervert, okay?"

She smiled at him. "Okay. I'll work on my temper and you work on not taunting people."

"This also means that you have to figure out a way to deal with the morning gang since it's your main source of stress," Ranma said.

"I've tried to get them to stop!" Akane protested. Ranma could tell she was trying to rein in her temper.

"You're lucky that you haven't seriously injured anyone," Ranma said.

"The school refuses to do anything since Kunou is the son of the principal," she said.

"Have you tried the police or their parents?" he asked.

"I tried talking to the police, but they brushed it off since the school wouldn't corroborate my story. Same with the few parents I tried."

"The problem is that you are letting them dictate rules to you," Ranma said. "Change the rules."

"How do I do that when they won't listen to me?" Akane asked.

"Let me think about it," Ranma said, "and I'll get back to you."

As she was walking away, Ranma had a thought and asked, "Did you see what got me wet that time?"

She smirked and said, "The vase on the shelf above you tipped over."

"It just spontaneously tipped over!?" he asked incredulously.

"Yep."

He put both palms on his forehead and leaned his head back and groaned. "I hate my life!"

Akane covered her mouth to suppress giggles as she exited the dojo.

Ranma felt slightly irritated with himself. He could not help but keep getting pulled into Akane's orbit. The girl was quite personable when she was not trying to kill him or ranting about perverts. At least the biggest source of tension between them was gone now that they were not engaged.

* * *

The next morning, Kasumi continued to be distantly polite. He still could not tell if she had changed her manner toward him. Ranma elected to do the same and not talk about the engagement.

Ranma asked Akane to let him run ahead so that he could watch her arrival at school. She agreed. When Ranma arrived, he went to their classroom and watched Akane's arrival from the open window.

She arrived at a run shouting her mantra repeatedly, "I hate boys!" She was mobbed by waves of boys. They shouted phrases like, "Akane, I love you!" "Date with me, Akane!" and even "You will be mine, Akane!" Ranma could not help but shudder at that last one. Many of the groups looked to be in sports teams or clubs, since they were wearing matching uniforms. The groups had little coordination between themselves or even their members. Akane made short work of them.

As Akane reached the front of the courtyard, Kunou stepped out from behind a tree and tossed a rose at her. Akane stepped to the side and let it drop to the ground.

"Ah, the fierce maiden Tendou Akane. Thou hast once again vanquished the dogs that are not worthy to lick thy slippers. Come with me, my love, and together we will convince thy father to forsake the unworthy peasant Saotome so that our love may find expression!"

Ranma was mildly amused that he had graduated from demon to peasant.

"Our fathers moved the engagement to my oldest sister," Akane said, "but I refuse to have anything to do with you, Senpai. Leave me alone!"

Ranma noticed the increase in chattering by those watching from his classroom, but ignored them.

"Thou art still testing the quality of my love for thee!" Kunou said. He withdrew his bokken and gestured with it. "Very well, my fierce maiden. I challenge thee to honorable battle. If thou winnest, thou mayest date with me!"

Kunou lunged at her. Akane batted the bokken away. Ranma could tell that Kunou was skilled. His form was very good, if a little stiff. The interesting thing was that he could tell that Kunou was holding back. There were hesitations and many of his moves started faster than he finished them. In the end, like with the mob, Kunou went down. Akane left him and hurried into the school.

Class started shortly after Akane arrived. School was much the same as the previous day. Ranma was bored and had a hard time following what was said, since he had never had much schooling. His classmates kept bugging him about the engagement, but he ignored them. Ranma managed to stay at school the whole day.

On the way home he stopped at Dr. Tofu's clinic to pick up his books.

"What are your intentions toward Kasumi, Ranma?" Dr. Tofu asked.

"I don't really have any intentions, Doc," Ranma said. "I don't want to get married anytime soon. Kasumi seems like a nice enough girl, but she hasn't really warmed up to me. I plan on ignoring the engagement and putting it off, if our fathers try to press it. The way I see it, you have a couple of years, at least, to try and convince Kasumi and her father to let you press your suit, if you want to."

Even Ranma knew it was not as simple as that. Talking to a woman's father about dating her while she was engaged to another man was a major social no-no. However, Tofu seemed to accept what he said.

"That's good to know, Ranma," he said. "If you ever change your mind about how you feel about the engagement, I'd appreciate the courtesy of you telling me."

After that, they made small talk, as if nothing had changed. Ranma was relieved, but on the other hand he worried a little bit about the doctor's obliviousness. Regardless, Ranma slipped his three books into his schoolbag.

* * *

At the Tendou house, after practicing martial arts and then dinner, Ranma sat down to take a look at his schoolwork. It remained as incomprehensible to him as it had in the classroom. He sighed and then went to the kitchen for some cold water. Kasumi looked at him funny when he changed to a she, but did not say anything.

When she picked up her books, things did not instantly make sense, but she found that she could concentrate on the words better and that she was a faster reader. She started flipping through the book, looking for explanations on how to do the work.

Akane joined her at the table. "Why are you a girl, Ranma?" she asked.

"Schoolwork is easier this way," she said. "I remember what I read much easier and make connections between things I read better."

"Scientific proof that girls are smarter than boys?" Nabiki drawled from the doorway.

"I don't think so," Ranma said. "I think it's specifically my curse. It's like it converts all my physical energy to mental energy. I remember everything I read at a glance when I'm a girl. I don't think most girls can do that."

"What happens when you switch back to a boy?" Akane asked.

"I still remember everything I learned as a girl," she replied, "but I'm not as good at making connections and the knowledge isn't as instinctive. The same is true with regards to my martial arts as a girl, except that I'm also not as fast or as strong as a girl."

Ranma went through a lot of her homework pretty easily. The things she had problems in, like math, which required background knowledge, Akane helped her with.

"I'm a little jealous," Akane said as they finished. "You could easily be the best student in the class if you attended as a girl."

"Not worth it," Ranma said with a shudder. "I agree with you, Akane, in that most of the boys at the school are perverts."

"How do you think you'll do on tests as a boy?" Akane asked.

"I don't know," Ranma answered. "I've never tried this before. I should do pretty well in the subjects like History that are mainly rote memorization. Things like Math, I'm less sure of."

Ranma had been thinking off and on all day about Akane's problem. She thought she had a solution. "Let's go talk by the fish pond," she said quietly. "I think I have a solution to your problem."

When they reached their destination, Ranma said quietly, "The main thing is that they are couching their actions as a challenge. However, it's not a proper challenge. A proper challenge has to be answered by the challenged party and the terms, if any, have to be agreed on first. The terms that they are presenting are that you will go on a date with them if you lose. However, there are two problems with this. The terms are unequal, since you don't get anything if you win. The other issue is that since they are attacking you en masse, there is not a clear winner among them unless they intend to all go on a date with you."

"Those are all problems I've had with this, but couldn't put into words," Akane said.

"It probably doesn't help that the whole thing makes you furious," Ranma said.

Akane nodded.

"Since it isn't a proper challenge," Ranma continued, "that makes it assault and since they are trying to make you date them, it's sexual assault."

Akane grimaced. "I've been trying not to think of it that way because it makes me feel like a victim."

Ranma also grimaced. "I know how you feel."

Akane stared at her.

"I hate feeling vulnerable too," Ranma said. "Anyway, I've seen women in China use pepper spray or mace when they've been attacked. Responding with pepper spray is clearly not the response of a martial artist, so by doing it you're informing them that you don't accept their challenge as valid and that you're treating them like common rapists. Pop has used pepper spray on me to 'toughen me up,' so I know how unpleasant it is. It should get them to stop. Just make sure you bring enough for the whole mob."

"Thanks for the advice, Ranma," Akane said. "I'm not sure if my pride will let me use it, but I'll keep it in mind."

Ranma shrugged. "It's up to you whether your pride is more important."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I don't know if women would be accepted as dojo masters in Japan or not, but it seems reasonable to assume that Genma and Soun would think they wouldn't be.


	6. Chapter 6: The Lost Boy?

The following day began with Ranma being thrown out the window. He instinctively tucked into a roll. His father leaped out after him. The fight ended with his pop going into the fish pond. Ranma was positive his pop would have thrown him in there to start if it would not have ended the fight before it began.

Kasumi was distantly polite at breakfast again. Ranma ran ahead of Akane to get to school. He was not expecting anything different since she would not have had time to get any pepper spray.

School was a little bit more interesting because he knew what the teacher was talking about, but still not interesting enough to pay attention—especially since he could figure it out much faster while doing his homework. He got about half of the questions he was asked right because of this—which was better than what had happened the previous days. Math was again impenetrable because he let his mind wander during when the new material was presented.

He and Akane again ignored each other at school, but Ranma thought it was because they were both embarrassed at how they had treated each other previously and were not sure how to deal with each other as ex-fiancés in public.

At the Tendou home, he practiced his art and then worked on katas for his cursed form. After dinner she worked on her homework with Akane.

The next couple of days passed similarly, until Saturday, when Akane told Ranma as they were leaving for school, "I'm going to do it. I got some yesterday."

Ranma nodded and ran ahead. He watched from the window as Akane walked silently into the courtyard. The boys started their chant and charged her. The screams began as Akane sprayed the first to attack her. The rest halted their charge.

Akane loudly said, "Any of you who wish to challenge me, shall make a _proper_ challenge. We can schedule a time and discuss terms, if any. _However_ , I vow on my honor that I will never date anyone involved in these disgraceful morning assaults."

"You can't do that!" a brave boy yelled. "Your martial arts school requires you to accept any challenge!"

"This is not a proper challenge and I refuse to dance to the tune of the sick mind that came up with it!" Akane yelled back. "Also, even though I am required to accept any reasonable challenge, I am not required to repeat the same stupid challenge every day. Besides, if this were a real challenge, we have not discussed what you all owe me for failing it dozens of times." She smiled evilly. "Since you attacked me without waiting for me to say what you owed me if you lost, I can demand anything I want."

Some of the boys gulped visibly at that. Ranma wonder if they were remembering who her sister was and hoping Akane was not as ruthless as Nabiki was reputed to be.

"This whole idea was ridiculous and I refuse to treat it seriously!" Akane finished and began to walk through the crowd.

As she approached the front doors, Kunou again stepped out from the tree. He said, "Ah, my fierce maiden, Tendou Akane, thou hast dispatched the fools with even greater alacrity this fine morning. Come, let us battle, in order to show forth our burning passions!"

"I have vowed on my honor to never date you, Senpai, due to your part in organizing the morning assaults," Akane said.

"Forbidden love!" Kunou proclaimed. "Worry not, my fair maiden. Together we can overcome those that forbid our union!" He whipped out his bokken and took a stance. "We shall fight until the forbidden becomes forbidden itself!"

"I forbid it!" Akane said as she sprayed him. "Idiot!"

She walked into the school unmolested. The girls who were watching began to clap. Ranma smiled.

* * *

Since Saturday was a short day at school, Ranma spent extra time practicing martial arts and studying Chinese symbols and Japanese kanji. By the end of Sunday evening he felt ready to start reading his beginning magic book. He also felt like he had worked out the basics of the style he would use in his cursed form. The only thing left was to buckle down and practice in girl form. He also needed to work on his balance and developing new instincts in his cursed form.

On the personal front, Akane was treating him better. Kasumi was remaining distantly polite. The way Nabiki was watching him made him nervous. The fathers were both fairly quiescent. Ranma felt they were biding their time in order to not cause another explosion with the engagement.

* * *

Monday morning, the group of perverts waiting to attack Akane was reduced to almost half. Some of them snuck away when they saw the reduced numbers of the mob. Akane again used pepper spray on her attackers. Kunou was not deterred in the slightest, proclaiming his love to a light post as tears tried to clear his eyes while Akane walked into the school.

Ranma's classmates were nosy and irritating. Ironically, the only one he found pleasant to talk to was Akane. The only thing they wanted to talk to him about was the engagement and it being changed. A lot of the boys wanted to know how Kasumi compared to Akane in the looks department and how he felt about kissing an older woman. The girls pretty much all ignored him, but then giggled behind his back. This was compounded by the fact that school was still boring, even though he was understanding more of it.

As he was leaving the schoolyard in the afternoon, he heard a voice yell out, "Saotome Ranma, prepare to die!"

His instincts kicked in and he dodged a blow from. . . an umbrella? The force of the blow cracked the pavement. His challenger was wearing a yellow shirt and had a yellow bandana with black marks on it in his hair. He looked familiar.

"Ranma, because of you I've seen hell!" the boy proclaimed before thrusting at him again with the umbrella.

Ranma admitted to himself that the boy was skilled, but he was too slow to be much of a threat to him. Ranma evaded the thrusts as he tried to figure out how his opponent was and why he was so worked up.

"Stop hopping around like a monkey and fight me like a man!" the boy yelled.

Ranma remembered the boy now. "Ryouga! How'd you find me, man?"

"How dare you make fun of me after all you've done to me!" Ryouga screamed.

"Is this about the bread?" Ranma asked.

The two had gone to the same all-boys junior high school for a few months during one of the few times he had attended school. The school had a tradition of throwing the last bread of the day out into a crowd during lunch. It was quite the free-for-all, but Ranma always ended up with the bread. Ryouga had evidently been used to getting the bread and got mad at him for it. The rest of the school teased the boy for his poor sense of direction. Ranma had felt bad for the boy and would lead him to and from school, but not bad enough to let him have the bread. He had not been good enough at the time to prevent his pop from stealing most of his food and had always been hungry.

Ryouga opened the umbrella and threw it at him. It spun at him like a boomerang.

"This is not about the bread!" Ryouga snarled. "This about you not respecting me and making my life miserable! I'll destroy your happiness, if it's the last thing I do!"

"I'm happy?" Ranma muttered to himself. Whatever Ryouga's problem was, Ranma probably had it much worse. However, he would not admit that to the other boy.

Ryouga paused in his attack and asked, "Why did you run away from our man-to-man fight, Ranma?"

"I waited at the spot for three days, Ryouga!" Ranma said, incredulously.

"And on the fourth day when I arrived after much tribulation you were gone!" Ryouga roared.

The crowd that had gathered, started to murmur at Ryouga's response. Ranma could see a small group gathered around Nabiki. Ranma idly dodged the return arc of the umbrella.

"Not my fault," Ranma said. "Pop dragged me off while I was weak from hunger."

"You knew about my problem," the other boy raged. "You should have convinced him to let you wait."

"I've only ever convinced Pop to change his mind about something once in my life," Ranma said. "He said you forfeited by being late and wouldn't let me stay. Besides the lot we were supposed to meet at was next to your house. If you couldn't make it in time, you should have asked for help."

The crowd was now laughing at Ryouga's expense. This made the boy even angrier.

"Curse you, Ranma!" he shouted and grabbed the bandana off his head and flung it at Ranma.

As the bandana spun through the air, it became apparent that it was actually four bandanas. Interestingly, there was still a bandana on the Lost Boy's head. The bandanas sliced into the wall around the school and the trees. One bandana cut off a good sized branch. Several students barely got out of the way in time.

"Ryouga, you idiot!" Ranma shouted. "There are innocent bystanders here."

"Stop dodging then, you monkey!" the other boy retorted. "If you fought like a man, they wouldn't get hurt."

"You're a real class act, Ryouga," Ranma said. "Follow me and we'll fight somewhere safe."

He leaped over the wall and led Ryouga to a nearby park.

"Stop running, you coward!" Ryouga yelled.

Ranma stopped in a grassy area of the park. He turned to face the Lost Boy, when an unexpected rain shower emptied onto them. Ranma was surprised to see Ryouga become a girl too. Girl Ryouga was blonde. She was thin, but powerful. She retained her fangs, but they were smaller and cuter.

"You followed me to Jusenkyo?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," girl Ryouga said, "and it's all your fault that I have to suffer this hell!"

She threw another spread of bandanas at Ranma. Ranma barely dodged them. As she rolled to her feet, she saw a red-haired, plainly-bound ponytail on the grass. She reached back and felt her shortened hair.

She started hyperventilating and said, "You still have your ki! You still have your ki!"

"Of course, I still have my ki!" Ryouga said, pausing in her charge.

Ranma could not help herself, seeing someone with almost the same curse as she had, but without the worst part of it, destroyed all her self-control. Tears leaked from her eyes. "I hate you!" she screamed.

Ryouga looked at her stunned.

Utter embarrassment enveloped Ranma. She tried to wipe the tears from her face with her arm while she fled. Ryouga just stood there, shocked.

* * *

Ranma had barely sat with her back against a tree, facing a pond when she heard footsteps. She wrapped her arms around her legs. She tried to get herself under control. She finally looked up to see girl Ryouga staring at her. She had followed her after all.

"Come to gloat?" snapped Ranma. "Or maybe follow through on your threat to murder me? I'll be honest. There isn't much I could do to stop you like this."

Ryouga started to laugh. Ranma's face flushed with embarrassment. She turned away from the other cursed girl.

"The _great_ Saotome Ranma can't handle being a girl?" Ryouga sneered.

"If it were just a girl curse, I could handle it," Ranma snapped. "My curse steels all my ki!"

"That's ridiculous Ranma," Ryouga said. "You can't live without ki."

"Fine," Ranma said. "It just takes _most_ of it and locks up the rest so that I can't consciously use it. I'm as weak as a normal 16-year-old girl with minimal training."

Ryouga started to laugh again. "I never have to worry about losing to you again! One glass of water and you're done!"

Ranma struggled not to start crying again. The disaster that her curse had brought to her life had shot her self-control to the point where it was basically shattered. If there was something she could do to fix herself through training, it would be different. Her only hope was to find a way to control her magic, but that essentially meant starting over and the only lead she had was the Amazon's _beginning_ magic book, which she felt like she might finally be able to read.

"What did I do to deserve your hate?" Ranma said, barely managing to keep from sniffling. "I thought you were my friend. I helped you to and from school all the time!"

"You call that helping?" Ryouga snarled. "You teased and taunted me all the time. I was the strongest fighter and everyone respected me until you came along. With your bouncing all over the place, my strength didn't matter. You made a mockery of me and then ran out on the fight I had planned that would restore my honor! Now the joke is on you! You are no longer a worthy rival! Beating you now would be pointless!"

"I'm sure I'll see you around, Ranma," she said as she started to walk off. "I wouldn't miss seeing you flounder and fail for the world."

* * *

Ranma stared at her severed ponytail. She had the rudiments of a plan to salvage her pride. If she knew Ryouga he would be boasting about his supposed victory.

She had stayed in the park until it started to get dark. She had heard Akane looking for her, but she avoided her. She tried to fix her face so that it did not appear so obvious that she had been crying, but the only mirror she had was the pond and the only cloth she had was her sleeve. She did not imagine that she was very successful. She pocketed her ponytail and walked to the Tendou's house.

She entered the home unannounced and made her way to the kitchen to find something to eat. Kasumi was there cleaning up after dinner.

"Oh, Ranma," she said. "What happened to you?"

Ranma just shrugged. She knew she looked a mess, but she did not want to share what had happened with her supposed fiancée.

"You didn't get. . . injured, did you?" Kasumi asked. Ranma supposed that "injured" could be a euphemism for something worse.

Ranma shook her head. "Just my pride and my hair."

"Nabiki mentioned your fight with that boy," Kasumi said. "Your father was quite distraught to hear that you lost."

"Ryouga didn't beat me, Mother Nature did," Ranma snapped.

Kasumi's face went blank.

Ranma grimaced and said, "Sorry Kasumi. I shouldn't snap at you. I'm just angry at Ryouga and the unfairness of my curse. How did Nabiki know anyway? There weren't any witnesses to what happened."

"She said that a blonde girl was spreading around that the other boy had handedly defeated you," Kasumi said.

Ranma snorted. "That blonde girl was Ryouga. He has a similar curse to mine, except his doesn't take away his ki, so he can still fight as a girl. To be honest, he would have beaten me if we had fought as girls, but he elected to taunt me and leave instead."

"What happened to your hair?" Kasumi asked.

"He got me with a razor-sharp bandana," Ranma said. "I wasn't fast enough as a girl to dodge it completely."

"Would you like me to fix it?" Kasumi asked.

"Would you?" Ranma said. "If you can even it out, that would be great. I'll just tie it into a pigtail."

Kasumi nodded. She left and came back with some scissors, a plain hair tie, a hand mirror, and a wash cloth.

She trimmed Ranma's hair and then handed her the mirror and the washcloth. "Here, you can fix your face and then head on up to the furo."

"Thanks a lot, Kasumi," she said. "I appreciate you helping me out. Pop would blow his lid if he saw me like this."

"It's not a problem, Ranma," she said and gave the redhead a brief smile.


	7. Chapter 7: Intent and Focus

**Updated:** 2016-07-21 to have Ranma introduce himself.

 **Updated:** 2016-08-09 to make the Senshi's "use names" anglicized Greek rather than romanji versions of the Greek. The old way I was doing it was cumbersome and I made too many mistakes trying to do that for the Amazons in The Shared Doom. I must have spelled "Gel" 3 or 4 different ways.

* * *

"Boy!" Genma exclaimed as Ranma entered their room. "What's this about you losing a fight to some kid!?"

"I didn't lose a fight, Pop," he said. "I got caught in rain that fell out of a clear sky. I think the curse punishes us if we don't spend enough time in our cursed form. It hasn't affected me much yet because of all the time I spent cursed in China, but. . ." He trailed off.

"What are you going to do about it?" his father asked.

"I figure that I could sleep as a girl," he said. "That should give me a good six to eight hours as a girl to balance things out for free." He stared at his father. "But that means no more throwing me out the window in the mornings."

"Boy," he exclaimed. "I do that for your benefit! To keep you from getting soft!"

Ranma scoffed. "Would you rather give up your free cheap shot or help keep the curse from inadvertently killing me?"

"Surely you exaggerate, Ranma," his father said doubtfully.

Ranma tossed out his red, severed ponytail. "Near-death experience number three."

"What happened?" his father asked.

"You remember Hibiki Ryouga? The boy that kept getting lost?" Ranma said. "It turns out he's even more obsessed than I thought. After you pulled me away from our spar because he was over three days late, he followed us to Jusenkyo. He got himself cursed and he blames me."

"What does he turn into?" Genma asked.

"A girl—but it was a different spring than mine, since he keeps his ki," Ranma said. "I don't think his curse hampers his fighting ability all that much. Anyway, the rain got us both and then _she_ threw a bandana that _she_ had sharpened with _her_ ki at me. It almost took off my head, since my girl form is slow. It got my ponytail instead."

"Boy, are you sure you're just not focusing correctly?" his father asked.

"I'm positive, Pop," he answered seriously. "One of the Amazon crones also confirmed it for me."

His pop looked doubtful at that, but let it go. Ranma saw his book bag sitting by his futon. Akane must have brought it back for him. He sighed and grabbed it and went looking for some water so that _she_ could do his homework quickly.

* * *

The next morning there were only five boys waiting to fight Akane. When they saw that their number was insufficient to even make an attempt, they all left quietly. Kunou still tried to accost her, but she sprayed him again and ducked inside while he was trying to clear his eyes.

After first period was over and before their second period teacher arrived, Ranma was mobbed by classmates that were curious about the previous day's fight.

"Is it true that you lost, Ranma?" one curious boy asked.

"Only in that I was forced to concede," Ranma said.

"Concede? How?" a girl asked.

"You know how the jerk was endangering everyone?" Ranma asked.

The witnesses to the fight nodded their heads.

"He threatened to involve my sister and almost killed her," Ranma said.

"What!?" the class shouted.

Ranma took out the severed ponytail and threw it on his desk. "If she had been any slower at dodging. . ." He shuddered.

The class was silent until one boy exclaimed, "You have a sister? Is she hot?"

Ranma glared at the boy. He thought his name was Daisuke.

The boy gulped and sat down.

"Yes, I have a twin sister," he said. "She's a slender redhead. Looks a lot like me, but she's not a martial artist like myself or Akane." He paused and then cracked his knuckles. "But if anyone messes with her, they answer to me."

"That blonde girl claimed that the other kid beat you handily!" Daisuke yelled from behind the crowd.

"The blonde girl is the Hibiki kid's sister," Ranma countered. "She's covering for him."

"How come your sister doesn't attend?" another boy asked. Ranma thought it was Daisuke's friend Hiroshi.

"Pop is old-fashioned," Ranma said. "He doesn't think girls need an education."

Several of the girls in the class growled at that—including two of Akane's friends.

At that point the teacher came in and the crowd dispersed to their seats.

* * *

After school was over, Ranma went to the large park where he had his ill-fated encounter with Ryouga to read his beginning magic book. He found a quiet place next to a tree. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, he took a water bottle out of his book bag. He also had a thermos in there, but doubted the water in it was still hot enough.

He doused himself with the water and she sat down to read. The book only took her an hour to read with her female form's faster reading speed. It was not very big to begin with. Most of the book dealt with awakening and channeling one's magic. Ranma had definitely awakened her magic and she could channel, but not usefully or on command. The last third of the book dealt with the theory behind using spells.

Evidently, spells were unique to individuals. Each spell required intent and a focus. The intent was the most important part of the spell, but the focus is what made the spell usable in everyday life. A mage or sorceress—they were different terms for the same thing—used their willpower—intent—to call forth their magic to cause an effect and then direct it to a focus. The focus could be a physical object, a gesture, an incantation, or a combination of the three. The book claimed that repetition of the spell using the same focus would make the spell easier to cast and make it cost less magic.

The interesting thing about using a physical object as a focus was that it also allowed for spells to be stored. You could direct magic and intent toward the focus to use the spell or you could direct just intent if the focus already had magic stored in it.

The book also claimed that interesting effects could be achieved by mixing magic (mental or spiritual energy) with ki (physical energy), but did not go into any details since it was a beginner's text and most people did not have both. Ranma supposed that she was unique in having both, but not at the same time.

Ranma began with the basic "awakening" exercise. She was pretty certain that she would get results since she was sure that her magic was already awakened. Basic ki techniques required the martial artist to concentrate on their "deep core," which was below the diaphragm. Evidently magic techniques required the mage to concentrate on their "higher core," which was above the heart.

Ranma concentrated in that area. Ki was like a fluid, it naturally circulated. Magic seemed more akin to electrical power. It did not circulate—at least not in its quiescent state. She connected to her magic and it exploded around her as it had when she was angry. She tried to control it, but it did not act like her ki did in her birth form.

Since her magic was obviously awakened, she moved on to one of the recommend exercises for beginning mages: a simple light spell. The book recommended cupping a hand, thinking of a small ball of light within the bowel of the hand and saying a word or phrase. The book said that the word or phrase should not be one that they would use otherwise or it would dilute the power of the focus or alternatively accidentally trigger the magic. She wracked her brains for something she could remember, but would never use on purpose. The book mentioned that some Western mages used Latin, since nobody actually used it nowadays for normal life. Unfortunately, she had no access to a Latin dictionary. Using Mandarin, Korean, or English was ill-advised since she might actually need to use them in real life. Then she remembered seeing an American movie where they used "Pig Latin"—where you took off the first consonant sound and put it on the end of a word with the "long A" sound. She took the English word "light" and made it into Pig Latin. She did not want to make this her style of focus, but it would do for this spell for now.

"Aiturei," she said, forming a cup with her right hand and willing ball of light forming there. She was blinded by a huge flash of light.

She groaned. Obviously, this worked better when you grew into your magic power instead of starting with huge amounts.

She tried again, this time with less intent. Nothing happened.

She tried with more intent and was blinded again.

The next time she did it with her eyes closed. She tried to bring the intent, but focus on only making a small ball of light. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell that she was putting too much magic into it.

She kept trying for several minutes before getting frustrated. When she became frustrated, her magic refused to focus and just flared uselessly. She meditated to regain her calm before trying again. After another 15 minutes of trying, she stopped and noticed that two young women were watching her.

The women looked to be in their 20s or possibly 30s. They looked like young adults, but their eyes held wisdom that made them appear like they could be older. They were attractive, yet somehow forgettable. They were both wearing brightly-colored seifukus with tall boots, short skirts, extra bows, and a tiara. One of them was blonde and wearing a red, white, and blue color scheme, while the other was somehow blue-haired with a blue and white color scheme. The blue-haired one was looking at a palm-top computer. Overall, it looked like a seven-year-old girl had tried to "improve" a school uniform.

"If you'd like to keep trying," said the blonde one, "we don't mind waiting. We're just here to satisfy our curiosity. We just want a few minutes of your time."

Ranma snorted. "I wasn't getting anywhere. I might as well listen to you."

"What were you trying to do?" asked the blue-haired one.

"A simple light spell," Ranma replied, "but I can't seem to put only a small amount of magic into it."

"That's an unusual problem to have," the blue-haired one said. "Usually people start off with small amounts of magic and gain more as they practice."

"Training accident," Ranma said. "I am. . . was. . . a high-level martial artist, but the accident turned all my ki into magic." She did not want to explain about her curse to start off, if at all. "My magic doesn't act anything like my ki did, so I'm having trouble using it. I've always attracted trouble and I'm tired of close calls almost killing me, so I'm trying to control my magic so I can defend myself."

The two women looked at each other and then the blonde one said, "You can call me Selene and this is Hermes." She gestured to the blue-haired one. "We've felt you off and on for the last couple of weeks, but could never pin you down because your magical eruptions never lasted very long until now. We've been protecting Tokyo from supernatural threats for almost 20 years, so we like to check out possible allies and adversaries."

"I'm Ranma. What's with the weird outfits?" Ranma blurted out.

Selene laughed. "We started when we were 14. Hermes thinks that my subconscious picked the uniforms. When we got old enough to realize how ridiculous they looked and learned enough to change them, I decided to keep them because it was how everyone recognized us—plus I'll admit to a little nostalgia about them."

Hermes shook her head. "Admit it. You keep them because they irritate Ares."

Selene laughed again. "I admit nothing!"

"I remember seeing you in a tabloid years ago," Ranma said, dredging up an old memory. "You're the Sailor Senshi! I thought you went by planet names."

"Our formal titles are Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury," Hermes said. "We've chosen informal names for friends to call us while we're in uniform. That way they can talk about us without drawing suspicion, while still protecting our families from our enemies and general harassment."

"Am I a friend then?" Ranma asked.

"If you'd like to be," Selene said. "I think you can never have too many friends!"

"Can you describe the training accident?" Hermes asked. "Maybe we can help."

"Are you mages?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Selene responded. "I specialize in healing, light, and purification magic, but I know the basics of most types. Hermes specializes in water, ice, and analytical magic. With our other friends included we have most specialties covered. We can sympathize with your problem. We too started out with too much magic. Our only saving grace is that we started off knowing a couple of spells. However, once we started experimenting with making our own spells, we ran into the same problem you're having."

"You can help me then?" Ranma asked.

"I think so," Selene responded.

Ranma hesitated, but decided to tell them the full story. "Have you heard of a place in China called Jusenkyo?"

"Springs of Sorrow?" Hermes said. When Ranma nodded, she shook her head.

"It's a cursed training ground near the Bayankala Mountains with dozens of springs," she explained. "Each spring has its own tragic story of a person or animal that drowned there. Anyone who falls in the spring after that is cursed to take the form of whatever drowned there. My idiot pop took me there and got us both cursed."

"That must be why I can detect trace amounts of death magic on you," Hermes commented.

Ranma shrugged. "I fell into the Spring of Three-eyed Sorceress." She opened her third eye. The glow coming off of Selene and Hermes was almost blinding. A golden crescent moon appeared on Selene's forehead. Hermes had a symbol on her forehead too: a circle with a cross dangling below it and two horns coming off the top of the circle. "It converted most of my ki into magic."

"Is your third eye significant?" Hermes asked.

Ranma shrugged. "I can see magic and ki with it. Sometimes I can see something significant in a person's aura. I can see a moon on Selene's forehead and a different symbol on yours."

"It's probably the symbol for the planet Mercury," Hermes said.

"You were just an ordinary girl before?" Selene asked.

Ranma looked down and turned red from embarrassment. "No, I was a boy."

"How awful!" Selene exclaimed. "And you haven't been able to change back since?"

"The curse is water-based," Ranma said. "Hot water deactivates it. Cold water activates it. My problem is that cold water always finds me at the worst times. It's almost gotten me killed at least three times."

"How is that?" Hermes asked.

"Like I said before, I tend to attract trouble," Ranma admitted. "Usually it's no problem because my real body is pretty durable due to my ki. I'm also pretty fast. However, since this body has very little ki, if I get into a high-powered fight and then get wet, it's life threatening."

"Hmm," Selene said. "Would you like one of us to mentor you?"

"Would you?" Ranma asked. "I know I could get the basics of it by myself, but it would be better if I had help."

Selene nodded enthusiastically. "What kind of magic would you like to learn?"

"Barriers first," Ranma said. Her book had mentioned a shield spell. "Maybe healing after that?" That would help recovery when she could not change back for whatever reason. "Conjuring or storage spells would be great too."

"Kronus would be the best bet then," Selene said. "I could help you with the healing as well. Any of us could help with storage spells."

"Kronus?" Ranma asked.

"Sailor Saturn," Hermes said. "She specializes in healing, death, and barrier magic."

"I'll eventually want to learn some type of offensive magic," Ranma said, "but probably something tamer than death magic."

Selene giggled. "Kronus often wishes that her magic were tamer too."

Ranma looked at the sun, which was about to set.

"It was nice to meet you," she said, "but I need to head back to my house before it gets too dark."

"Would you like to me to bring Kronus to meet you here at four o'clock tomorrow? I can also look to see if we can remove the curse entirely." Selene asked.

"That would be great," Ranma said with a big grin. "Thanks for the offer of help."

"It's our pleasure," Selene said.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Yes, the guest stars are from Sailor Moon (created by Takeuchi Naoko). They will serve as Ranma's magic teachers. They won't really be involved directly in Ranma's adventures and all of the adventures from the Sailor Moon manga/anime are long over. Ranma will not become a Senshi or don a seifuku. The Senshi are all in their 30s, so they won't become a romantic interest for Ranma either. "Sailor Moon" happened in the 90's in this world (like in the manga/anime) while Ranma is modernized to current times. A future chapter will tell what the deal with Crystal Tokyo happening or not is.

The Senshi's "informal" names are Greek versions of the names of their planets (except Uranus, who will use the Latin name).


	8. Chapter 8: First Spell

**Author's Note:** I updated the previous chapter to change the "use names" of the Senshi to the anglicized Greek versions to save my sanity.

* * *

Ranma anxiously hurried to the place where he was going to meet Selene and Kronus. He thought about changing to a girl first with the water he had in his book bag, but figured that they should see his birth form, since they already knew about the curse. He actually ended up being a little bit early.

A few minutes after four o'clock, Selene and Hermes showed up with a woman who must have been Kronus. The newcomer had purplish hair. The color scheme of her seifuku was white and purple and was decorated with black bows.

"Ranma?" Selene asked.

"That's me," Ranma replied. "This is how I look without my curse."

Selene giggled. "You're quite the looker. You're lucky that you're half our age or you might have to beat Aphrodite and Zeus off with sticks." She put a hand up to her mouth and stage-whispered, "Personally, I'd still be careful around Dite, if I were you."

Ranma scratched the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Hello, Ranma," said the purple-haired woman. "I'm Kronus."

The two of them exchanged bows.

"I didn't think you'd be coming this time, Hermes," he commented.

"I wanted to get some readings on your curse, Ranma, to see if there was anything we could do to help," she responded.

"Oh," Ranma said brightly. "That would be great."

"I have base readings from both your forms," Hermes said, "but to get all the information we need, I'll need you to switch back and forth."

"Okay," Ranma said. A slight hope stirred within him before he quashed it. Experience told him that something good like getting rid of the curse would not be that easy.

He took out his water bottle and poured some of it on his head. His ki diminished down to almost nothing as his form shifted. She felt her magic lurking within her. It was easier to feel after the exercises she had down yesterday.

"Fascinating," murmured Hermes. "Can you change back?"

Ranma took her thermos out of her book bag and opened it up. It was only lukewarm. She shook her head. "My hot water has cooled off too much for it to trigger the change."

"We can teach you a storage spell that keeps whatever's inside the storage space in stasis so that your hot water stays hot," Hermes offered. "It's pretty basic since it doesn't hold a whole lot, so you should be able to manage it in a few weeks."

"That would be great!" Ranma said with a smile. "Assuming I still need it."

"Let me see your thermos," Selene said.

Ranma handed it to her. Selene stuck her finger into the water and said, "Calore."

She turned to Ranma after a few moments and said, "Heating spell. It's handy for reheating leftovers."

Hermes and Kronus rolled their eyes as Selene handed the thermos back.

"It's pretty basic, but I'd recommend you wait to learn it until after you start your specializations so that you don't accidentally specialize in fire or heat spells," Selene continued.

"Do all mages specialize?" Ranma asked.

"Almost all do," Hermes said. "If you rate magic power on a scale of one to ten, a mage that specializes in one field can have a score of 10. A mage that specializes in two or three related fields can have a score of 8 or 9 in each if she had the same potential. A mage that specializes in two unrelated fields can have a score of 5 or 6 in each. A mage that tries to be a generalist will be lucky to score a 3 in each field."

"I don't see how analysis is related to ice and water or how barriers are related to healing and death," Ranma said.

Hermes gestured for her to switch back to male and then said as Ranma changed, "I probably rate a 7 in my ice and water magic and a 5 in my analysis magic. I only rate as high as I do for analysis due to the excellent tools I have. Without the tools I inherited, I would probably be a 3 in that area."

"My specialties are actually all related through a concept called 'The Silence,'" said Kronus. "'The Silence' is the moment between death and renewal—which are two sides of the same coin. My barriers draw on 'The Silence' to bring things to a halt. They aren't true force fields, although they act as if they were in almost all circumstances."

"I think I understand," Ranma said.

"It also helps that Kronus is quite powerful," said Hermes. "A 1 for her would be more powerful than my 10. The scale is relative to how powerful an individual would be if they specialized in one field."

"There's a certain fluidity in what can be considered related," Selene added. "The only limiting factor is your imagination. Even though Kronus and I both have healing specialties, conceptually we approach them differently. My healing comes from the concept of purification and hers comes from the concept of 'The Silence' that she mentioned earlier. It would be best to figure out which two or three areas you want to specialize in before we get started so that you don't waste potential going after things that are too different in concept. We can help you brainstorm ideas."

Ranma nodded. "I would like that."

"Selene, take a look at what I've got on Ranma's curse, since you're our curse breaker," Hermes said.

Ranma waited nervously while Hermes projected some diagrams and charts into the air between the two magical girls and they began to talk about them. He did not have enough background to make heads or tails of it.

Selene frowned and said, "I can remove your curse, Ranma, but. . ."

The hope that had started to build wavered. "But. . ." he prompted.

"But it's very heavily entwined in your ki," she said. "In fact you could even say that it has infected your ki. If I take it out, the infection will just cause it to return. The only way that I can get rid of it would be to excise most of your ki."

"This would leave you without your girl form and its magic and your boy form would be nearly as weak as your girl form is now, except without any magic to compensate," Hermes added. "Excising the ki would leave your remaining ki scarred. It would be unlikely to ever recover."

"Oh," Ranma said sadly. "I may change my mind, but I think I'll pass unless you can come up with another way to cure me." He could not imagine being without his ki permanently. The thought of losing everything he had worked for and just being normal made him ill. He did not think he could deal with only having a watered-down version of the Art.

"Hey," said Selene suddenly, "Ranma is the name you were born with as a boy, right?"

"Yeah," said Ranma.

"Have you picked out a name for yourself as a girl?" she asked.

"No," he replied, "I haven't needed to. I was hoping to avoid things like that."

"Do you think that you'll be able to hide your curse?" Selene asked. "You seemed to imply that it activated at inconvenient times."

"It does," Ranma said with a grimace.

"Then the way I see it," she said, "you have two choices: you can see if you can hide as someone else or you can let other people know about it."

"I did tell my classmates that my girl form was my sister," he admitted, "but I never told them any name."

"Ah," she said, "you've already decided." She smiled brightly. "Do you need any help coming up with a name?"

"Umm. . ." he vocalized.

"Change back to a girl since we're coming up with a name for that part of you," Selene suggested.

Ranma reluctantly doused himself with water and changed.

"Would you rather keep a name close to your boy name?" Hermes asked.

Ranma thought about it and then said, "Yeah—I'll make less obvious mistakes that way."

"I've known some girls that went by Ran and Ren," Kronus offered.

"Or you could change -ma to -ko or -mi," Hermes said.

"Wild child or wild beauty?" Ranma asked, figuring out the meanings behind the names.

"Or you could use the orchid kanji instead," Kronus offered.

Ranma grimaced. She did not want to use a flower kanji in her name. "I'd rather keep the wild kanji," she said.

Selene brought her hand to her chin and stared at her intently. "I could see you being a Ranmi."

Ranma blushed.

Selene laughed. "People hardly pay any attention to the meaning of names other than when they are picking them out," she said.

Ranma thought for a moment. "I don't really like either of them, but having a close name _would_ be convenient." She paused. "I think I _do_ prefer Ranmi over Ranko or just Ran—with the wild kanji."

"Wild beauty, eh?" Selene said with a grin.

"The name is a little girly," said Ranma, "but it's better than wild child." She smirked. "I do look pretty good though, don't I?"

Hermes rolled her eyes. "I can't see how someone can be so vain about her looks and so utterly tomboyish at the same time. You ready to start brainstorming power concepts, _Ranmi_?"

"Yeah," Ranma said with a grimace at her new name.

"Maybe it would help if we went over all the Senshi's power concepts," suggested Kronus.

"That's a good idea," Hermes said.

"Alright!" exclaimed Selene. "We'll go in planetary order. First is Sailor Mercury, Hermes."

"My power concept is 'The Cloud,'" said Hermes. "My powers are mostly related to water as a fog, liquid, or ice—in other words, water as precipitation or precipitation about to happen."

"How does that relate to your analysis magic?" asked Ranma.

"My analysis magic is not fully connected to my core concept," she replied, "which is why it's weaker than the rest of my magic. We didn't fully understand this when we started out and I started to specialize in analysis. I received my offensive powers more slowly than the others because of it and I probably won't ever reach my full potential in my core powers." She shrugged. "I don't have any real regrets about it though. My analyses helped us survive when we were first starting out."

Ranma nodded.

"Next is Sailor Venus, Aphrodite, or as we usually call her, Dite," Selene said. "Her power concept is 'The Ties that Bind.' Her powers relate to empathy and physical manifestations.

"Then there's me: Sailor Moon. My concept is 'The Light from the Heavens.' My powers relate to light and purification and through that physical healing. As one of the more powerful Senshi, I can also do basic spells in the other girls categories.

"Sailor Mars, Ares, has the power concept of 'The Sacred Fire.' She controls fire. Her fire can also give her visions since it represents the hopes and fears of humanity in the form of its first and most powerful tool."

"Wait," Ranma said. "There's no Sailor Earth?"

Selene shook her head. "Earth was not part of the original Moon Kingdom that spawned us in a past life. There is a Guardian of Earth that originates from that time period, but his powers are different than ours and are not tied together like ours are."

"You mean he doesn't have an overarching concept to his magic?" Ranma asked.

"No, I'm sure he does," Selene said. "We just haven't discovered it. We don't see him very much currently," she said sadly. "There were certain expectations that we had as a group and when we decided to sacrifice them to save the majority of humanity, he felt that that cut him free from us."

"You miss him, don't you?" Ranma asked. She was not that great at figuring people out, but this was obvious.

"I do," she said. "I sometimes feel that he'll come back to us, but I've decided that I'd rather he do so of his own free will rather than because of some destiny or other."

"Renako thinks that's why he's stayed away," Kronus said. "I think he wants to confirm that the feelings are actually his and not his past life's."

"Renako?" asked Ranma.

"A daughter of mine and the Guardian of Earth that traveled from the future, an alternate future now, I suppose," said Serena. "When we decided to eschew that future, Dispater anchored her to the present, since she had grown close to us and had no real friends in her own time. Her powers are similar to my own."

Ranma nodded in understanding.

"The concept for Sailor Jupiter, Zeus, is 'The Forest Giant,'" Selene said, continuing the list. "Her powers include control of plants and lightning."

"That's a random combination," Ranma said.

"Not really," said Hermes. "Tall trees were the world's first lightning rods."

"If you say so," Ranma said doubtfully.

"The thing you need to understand, Ranmi," said Hermes, "is that it doesn't matter if the concepts are connected in the most logical manner, only that they are. If your imagination can make a strong connection, then there's a strong connection."

Ranma frowned, but gestured for Selene to continue.

"We talked about Sailor Saturn, Kronus, and 'The Silence' earlier.

"Sailor Uranus, Caelus, has the concept of 'The Heavens.' Her powers control cosmic radiation and gravity. She uses these to fire blasts or to shake the ground.

"Sailor Neptune, Poseidon, has the concept of 'The Deep Ocean.' Her powers control water from the deep. She also has some divination powers related to the mirror-like surface of the deep ocean during a calm.

"Lastly, there is Sailor Pluto, Dispater. Her powers are represented by 'The Moment' and are time based."

"Huh," Ranma said. "So not all of you managed to get three subcategories."

Selene nodded. "For the most part our powers were determined in a past life that most of us only have sketchy recollections of. We don't really know why some of us have broader powers than the others. Have you thought of what you want to do?"

"I was thinking that if I could emulate telekinesis, that could provide my barriers and some offense," said Ranma. "The other part of it would be physical augmentation, including healing. Kind of a 'Mind and Body' package."

"That could work," said Hermes, "but I would suggest terming it 'Mind Over Body.' The clearer the type of relationship, the more powerful the concept."

"Okay," Ranma said. "That makes sense to me. Since my magic is mental energy—that concept would signify using it to strengthen my body."

"I have to warn you, Ranmi, to be careful experimenting on yourself. It's easier to halt magic that you cast on others than it is to halt bad magic you cast on yourself," said Selene. "I would also not get your hopes up on being able to fight using magic like you do in your birth form."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.

"I'm not sure what kind of interaction that type of magic spell will have on your curse," she replied.

Ranma frowned. "Even if I can't give myself ki using my magic, I think this is still the concept I want to go with."

"Okay," said Selene with a smile. "I have two gifts for you, student." She handed Ranma two books. "The first is a diary. I'd like you to take notes on your magic, especially any focus phrases you use."

"I have a very excellent memory, Sensei," Ranma said, "especially in this form."

"You don't have to do it," the blonde woman said with a smile, "but even Hermes found that it helped her to solidify things in her head. The second book is a Latin dictionary. I heard you using Pig Latin yesterday. While that would work, I think it would be somewhat embarrassing."

Ranma chuckled embarrassedly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah. I used that because I didn't have anything else."

"Latin is a good choice," noted Hermes, "because it's not actively used. I would be careful because Latin-based words are found all throughout English and Portuguese and some have found their way into Japanese that way. I would recommend that you take a Latin word and alter it—sort of like is used in the Harry Potter books. Have you read them?"

She shook her head.

"That's fine," Hermes responded. "Just take a Latin word or phrase and twist it. The act of looking up the base will help you remember it better than a pure made-up word, but the twist will mean you'll never accidentally say it."

"Thanks, Hermes, Selene," Ranma said. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Now, I know you were working on a light spell yesterday, Ranmi," Selene said, "but I think you ought to work on a basic spell related to your concept instead so that you can start building it. First spells go a long ways toward building your concept."

"Okay," Ranma said. "I'd like to start with a shield spell then."

"I'd recommend something you can cast quickly," said Selene. "I would pick a quick a gesture and short word for your focus. Flip through the dictionary and choose a word and think of a gesture that would match your intent."

Ranma flipped through the Japanese to Latin dictionary until she found the entry for shield. The word "cetra" seemed to be what she was looking for.

"The more syllables a word or phrase has, the stronger the focus," added Hermes. "For a quick response spell, however, you want something quick—three syllables at most."

"The base word I want to use is pretty simple, but doesn't sound like any word I know: cetra," Ranma said.

"That would work," said Hermes.

"I would use a gesture too," said Kronus. "That will make up for using a short word. It should be something simple, but that you would not normally do."

Ranma thought. The easiest thing would be a one-handed gesture, but a lot of the simple things she came up with were connected to martial arts forms and stances. "How about this," she said after a moment. She held out her hand with her top two knuckles bent and her thumb touching the first knuckle of her ring finger.

"That will work," said Kronus. "Now you need to picture your intent."

"It will probably help if you talk through your intent with us," said Selene.

"I want to form a circular shield about half a meter in diameter," said Ranma. "I can point to the spot I want it to form with my focus gesture."

"What will you form it out of?" asked Kronus.

"My mental energies," Ranma replied. "That matches my concept, right?"

Kronus nodded. "Do you want it to be visible? There are pros and cons to doing it either way."

"Invisible, I think," the redhead responded.

"Fix your intent firmly in your mind," Kronus coached. "When it's firm, use your foci. As you use the spell more, you'll hardly need to fix your intent because your foci will do that for you."

"Should I use my third eye?" Ranma asked.

"If what you've said is true, it would make it easier to develop and cast spells," said Hermes, "but I wouldn't recommend it."

"Why not?" Ranma asked.

"You run the risk of making it a focus for your spells—possibly even making it so that you couldn't cast any spells without it if you always use it," she said. "That would be fine for big, flashy spells, but for small spells that you might want to use undetected, it could be a weakness."

"So I shouldn't use it at all for small spells?" the neophyte mage asked.

"No," said Hermes. "It's too helpful a tool for that. I would use it once every three to five times while your practicing so that it doesn't become part of your focus."

"Sounds reasonable," Ranma said.

Ranma fixed the image of her "telekinetic" shield into her mind. When she had it firmly in place, she made the gesture, focused her magic, and said, "Cetra."

She felt her magic gather, but very little of it went into her foci. She frowned and tried again with the same result. She opened her third eye and tried again. She saw a faint outline of magic in the spot she was trying to form the shield for a moment.

"Creating your first spell is always the hardest," said Selene.

"Something is happening," said the redhead, "but it's not very substantial."

Ranma kept practicing. After half an hour she finally got something to stay for 15 seconds.

"I think I've got it, kind of," she told the others.

"Shall we test it?" asked Kronus.

"How?" Ranma asked.

Kronus made a grasping gesture and pulled a canister of tennis balls out of nowhere. "This is the best way to test a barrier spell," she said. "How long can you hold it?"

"Fifteen seconds," Ranma responded.

"That's long enough to form it before I throw the ball," the purple-haired girls said.

At Kronus's prompting, Ranma formed her shield, "Cetra."

Kronus threw the ball. The ball's trajectory altered slightly, but did not bounce back like Ranma wanted. Ranma frowned.

"That's not a bad result for a first test," said her mentor.

They tried again for another 15 minutes before Ranma decided it was time for her to go. By this time she had managed to slow the ball down almost to a stop as long as it was not going too fast.

"We've taught you the hardest part of becoming a mage," Selene said. "Now it is mostly growing at your own pace. It is helpful to have another person to help you test certain types of spells, but it doesn't have to be a mage."

"Does that mean that you won't be teaching me anymore?" Ranma asked, trying not to show the fact that it made her sad.

"Not at all," the blonde said with a smile. "We like to get out and talk to new mages and help them out. We'll come help you practice every day this week and then perhaps once a week after that, if you'd like."

"I'd like that," Ranma said, returning her smile. After a moment, she added, "Is there a way that I can get into contact with you in case I have questions or concerns?"

Hermes pulled out out a simple silvery chain necklace with a simple crescent moon dangling from the end of it. Ranma frowned but decided that the necklace was not too girly.

"We give these to our male contacts," Hermes explained. "They're relatively easy to hide and are unisex. If you need to contact one of us, grasp the moon and say either our planet name or use name. If we aren't immediately available, you can leave a message for us. If you don't mind, I've put a diagnostic spell on it to let me keep track of how often your curse activates and whether your curse is causing water to seek you out like you've hypothesized."

"Thanks, it would be good to know whether that's my imagination or not." Ranma replied, taking the necklace. He made arrangements to meet them again at the same time the next day.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Regarding Sailor Pluto's use name: Pluto and Hades are both Greek gods. Depending on the time and place they were two different gods or two different aspects of the same god. The Roman gods of the underworld, Dis Pater and Orcus eventually came to merge and take a variation of the Greek name Pluto. I've elected to use Dispater to represent Sailor Pluto's alternate name, since Hades doesn't really fit the pattern and I can't see anyone voluntarily going by it.

Uranus is actually a Greek god, so I used the Roman version (Caelus) for Sailor Uranus's alternate name.

I had considered using Hera for Sailor Jupiter because more than any of the others it seems weird to call a woman Zeus, but decided to not do that.

Renako is short for Serenako or Selena (moon) child. Calling an adult woman "chibi" didn't make sense to me and I decided not to use the dub name "Rini."


	9. Chapter 9: Ryouga and Ribbons

**Author's Note:** I was amused by the discussion about the Sailor Senshi's costumes in the reviews. However, I like my explanation and I'm going to keep it and say that the Senshi's memories of their past lives are tainted by the expectations of their current lives and that while the uniforms were similar, the more childish elements weren't actually there in the Silver Millennium.

* * *

Thankfully, the water that Selene had heated was still hot enough to trigger Ranma's curse. He used it to change back to normal and headed to the Tendou's house. When he got there he went straight to the dojo, deciding he wanted to work out.

The dojo was occupied by Akane and Ryouga. Ryouga was attempting to teach Akane how to use some sort of ribbon, but was only having mediocre success.

"What in the world are you two doing?" he asked, not able to keep the disdain out of his voice.

"Ranma!" Ryouga exclaimed. "I have a bone to pick with you!"

"I thought you wanted to help me train, Ryouga," Akane snapped. "You can work out your testosterone issues with Ranma later."

Ryouga shrank into himself a little causing Ranma to smirk. A glare from Akane wiped it off his face. He still had to live with her and would like to avoid her temper.

"One of the girls from the St. Hebereke's Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team has a penchant for ambushing the girls from other schools' teams so that they can't compete," said Akane. "She attacked the Furinkan team and they want me to fill in for them since they can't anymore."

Ranma frowned. "How did Ryouga get involved?"

"I came looking for you to discuss the lies you told about me," Ryouga growled, "and saw her practicing. It so happens that my mother is an accomplished Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnast and used to practice with me to keep in shape. I saw Akane practicing and decided to help out."

"I really appreciate it, Ryouga," the Tendou girl said with a smile.

Ryouga smiled back with a dreamy expression on his face. Ranma admitted to himself that Akane had a _very_ cute smile, but he could not deal with her temper and that bridge had long since been engulfed in a fiery inferno. He smirked when he realized that Ryouga would discover it sooner or later.

Ranma moved to one end of the dojo and began doing katas as Akane resumed practicing under Ryouga's direction. He kept an eye on them as he moved through his exercises. Akane seemed to lack patience and tended to bull her way through the moves that Ryouga was teaching her. He was tempted to call out suggestions, but figured that even if Akane accepted them it would irritate Ryouga. He did not think that Akane would appreciate him picking a fight with her teacher.

Before long, it was dinner time. Akane invited Ryouga to stay, which he gratefully accepted. Ryouga managed to keep his temper contained since he wanted to impress Akane. After dinner the two went back out to the dojo, there only being three days until the competition.

Ranma worked through his homework quickly in his girl form and then went back out to the dojo to work out some more and to keep an eye on Akane and Ryouga.

When they finished up, Ranma said, "If you want Ryouga to be available to help you the next couple of days, he should either camp out in the yard or in here. If he doesn't, he'll get lost and you won't see him for weeks."

Akane frowned. "Ranma, you shouldn't pick on Ryouga after all he's done to help me today."

Ranma raised an eyebrow and said, "Why don't you ask your new friend if what I said is true or not."

She turned to the other boy and he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not that bad!"

"Are you willing to bet Akane's training on that?" Ranma said archly.

Ryouga flushed. "Maybe it would be better if I stayed close by."

"If you say so," Akane said. "I'll go run in and get a spare futon and you can stay in here."

Akane ran back into the house and returned quickly with a futon while Ryouga pulled out a couple of blankets from his pack.

Akane thanked him again and then left to turn in for the night. Ranma moved to follow her, but Ryouga said, "Hey! We still need to talk about the things you accused me of, you liar!"

Ranma rolled his eyes, but stayed behind.

"Don't stay up too late or make too much noise," Akane called.

After Akane left, Ryouga got up in Ranma's face. "What's this I hear about you saying I was endangering innocent bystanders?"

Ranma looked at the other boy incredulously. "How can you complain about this? You clearly were—even discounting my girl side."

"That was your fault, Ranma!" Ryouga exclaimed.

"How is you throwing your razor-sharp bandanas all over the place even remotely my fault!?" Ranma yelled back.

"If you fought like a man. . ." Ryouga started to rant.

Ranma turned his back on him and started to walk away. He had spent a long time by the pond staring at his ponytail the other day thinking about how to deal with Ryouga and what he wanted out of his art. His girl side took to planning like his normal side took to improvisation. He mentally sneered at the Lost Boy. He did not have a chance.

"Where are you going?" Ryouga demanded, making a grab at his arm. Ranma danced out of reach.

"If you hate the way I fight, how can you claim to be my rival?" Ranma said. "Look, Ryouga. You're a good fighter and you're one of the few my age that can keep up with me, but I fight because I enjoy it. Fighting you seems to come with too much baggage."

"Too much baggage!?" Ryouga exclaimed.

"Look, I get wanting to be the best," Ranma said, "and I can see how losing to me all the time could be frustrating, but I don't see how you can claim the moral high ground and indiscriminately endanger my classmates just because I won't stand still for your attacks. Besides, if it's not fun for you, why are you doing it?"

"My honor. . ."

"Your honor?" Ranma snapped. "If honor is at stake in our fights, then why is yours more important than mine?"

Ryouga frowned.

"Look, I understand that I'm 'King of the Hill' and you want a shot at me," Ranma said. "That's fine. I'll fight you as often as you want with only three conditions: no sneak attacks, no water, and no endangering bystanders."

"Can't handle sneak attacks, huh?" Ryouga sneered.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Are we martial artists or ninjas? If you're a ninja, then maybe you need a new rival."

"The day after the Rhythmic Gymnastics meet," Ryouga demanded. "Be here and we'll settle this."

Ranma was sure that Ryouga would not be satisfied until he won. He shrugged—at least it was good training. He said, "Sure, but you make arrangements for being their at a reasonable time. I'll cut you some slack, but I'm not waiting three days again."

Ranma heard some shouting a banging coming from the house. He ran outside. Ryouga followed him.

"I think it's coming from Akane's room," he told Ryouga. The yard was actually well lit by the full moon.

He was about to jump up to her window when a person-sized object came hurtling out of it.

"I got her!" Ryouga said as he jumped up to catch the person.

He landed next to Ranma. The person he had caught was a young woman who was clearly not Akane. She was wearing a dark leotard and had a ponytail that sprouted from the side of her head. Even in the moonlight, Ranma could tell that she was beyond merely pretty.

"My hero," the girl gushed in a high-class accent.

Ranma laughed. "It looks like you've got a fan, Ryouga."

"I do not discount your own attempt to come to my aid, sir," the girl said. "May I have your name as well?"

"His name's Ranma," Ryouga said, putting the girl down. "I'm sure you'd like to get to know him."

"Nah," Ranma said, amused. "This rescue was clearly yours. What were you doing up there, Miss?"

"I was having a battle in all fairness with Miss Tendou in preparation for our match on Friday," the girl said. "But don't either of you worry, I'm enough woman for the both of you! I am Kunou Kodachi the Black Rose. Remember it, my Loves!"

She tossed them both bunches of dark roses and laughed extravagantly as she leaped away. A cloud of powder wafted up from the bouquets. Some got into Ranma's lungs and he felt his muscles seize up. He could see that Ryouga was also affected.

Five minutes later, Akane came out to see what had happened. She was irritated when neither of the boys answered her, so she left in a huff. Ten minutes after Akane left, the powder wore off enough for the boys to move and talk.

"Kunou," Ranma said. "I wonder if she's related to the guy that has been harassing Akane."

"I don't know," Ryouga said, "but you can have her."

"I don't want her either," Ranma replied, "but if she's anything like the other Kunou loon, she's not going to give up very easily."

* * *

Akane was mildly amused when Ranma told her about their run-in with Kodachi on the way to school the next morning. "At least I'm not the only one that has to deal with the affection of a Kunou now."

"One would think that you'd be more sympathetic than this, Akane," he said.

"Oh, I am," she said with a giggle. "Once the initial amusement wears off, I'll be all sympathy." She paused and said, "As a favor, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention your engagement to Kasumi to her. If she's as obsessive as her brother, I don't want to imagine what that loon would do to my sister."

"Don't worry," he said. "I don't plan on even thinking about the engagement for a few years."

Akane nodded. "I'm just saying that in case you thought of using the engagement as an excuse to avoid her. I just don't think she'd accept it—her brother wouldn't."

Ranma nodded. Kasumi seemed nice enough and even though he did not really think she was his type, he did not wish her to come to any harm.

They continued walking when Ranma's danger sense went off. He grabbed Akane by the arm to halt her progress. A ribbon snapped in front of her and Kodachi hopped down from a tree where she had been hiding.

"I'm here to continue our fight, peasant girl," she sneered. She brightened when she noticed Ranma. "Ranma Darling, what are you doing with this lowly peasant girl?"

"Our fathers are friends," Ranma answered with a shrug.

Kodachi laughed extravagantly. "No need to sully yourself with her presence, Darling. Let me dispose of her and then I will escort you to school myself."

"That's unnecessary, Miss Kunou," he stated.

"I insist!" she proclaimed with another laugh. She sent her ribbon snapping toward Akane again.

Akane side-stepped the ribbon and then stepped on the end of it before Kodachi could pull it back. She advanced forward, keeping the ribbon trapped.

Kodachi dropped the ribbon and said, "We'll continue this later, peasant girl." She blew kisses toward Ranma. "Think of me often, Darling!" She bounded away with another laugh.

Ranma shook his head. He would not touch that girl if she were the last one on earth.

* * *

After school, Ranma again met with Selene and Kronus to work on the shield spell. She felt like she made real progress. She could manifest her shield for 30 seconds and it was rock solid—even when Selene got carried away and threw the balls harder than was possible for a normal human.

She had forgotten to have Selene heat up some water, so she walked home as a girl. As she approached the gates to the Tendou home, Kodachi dropped down in front of her.

"Peasant girl," she sneered. "What are you doing wearing my Ranma Darling's clothes?"

"Ranma is my brother, Miss Kunou," Ranma replied.

"Lies," Kodachi said. "Sisters do not wear their brother's clothes. You are trying to seduce _my_ Ranma."

"Pop is too cheap to by me any clothes, so I have to wear hand-me-downs," Ranma explained wearily. "Look, Miss Kunou, I don't have to explain myself to you and my brother would like you to stop stalking him."

"Strumpet!" Kodachi exclaimed. "A Kunou does _not_ stalk. And the sister of my Ranma Darling would not have such garish hair."

Ranma could not help herself. She did not take hits to her pride well. "My hair is not garish, you lunatic!"

Kodachi laughed extravagantly. Her laugh was starting to grate on Ranma's nerves. She slashed at Ranma with her ribbon.

"Cetra!" Ranma said, invoking her spell. The shield deflected the ribbon. Ranma grinned at her success. Her elation was short-lived, however as the crazy girl leapt over her and whipped her ribbon at the redhead faster than she could dodge or recast her spell. He cheek stung. She reached up and felt blood dribble from it.

"Not so smug are we now, peasant girl?" Kodachi said with a laugh.

"You really think this will endear you to my brother?" Ranma asked.

"Enough. With. Your. Lies!" snarled the gymnast. She twirled her ribbon and it wrapped around Ranma before she could do anything. The ribbon bit into her arms and stomach, cutting her shirt in places.

Kodachi laughed and said, "I don't even need to use my equipment's special features for you!" She grabbed a club from her bag and proceeded to beat the redhead with it.

Ranma saw Ryouga glaring at them through the Tendou's gate. She swallowed her pride and yelled, "Help please, Ryouga!"

"Oh?" said Kodachi. "And who is this wretch to you, Ryouga Darling?"

"Nothing," said Ryouga with a thin smirk as his eyes laughed at Ranma's predicament. "I hate her."

Kodachi laughed and was about to resume the beating, when Ryouga added, "But she is Ranma's sister and I could never respect someone who beat on such a wretched and helpless creature."

He turned and walked toward the Tendou house.

Kodachi released Ranma and chased after Ryouga. "You don't have to respect me—only love me!" she called.

Ranma groaned as she lay on the ground. She was too sore to get up right away. Luckily, she did not think she had any broken bones—just some very nasty bruises and some shallow cuts. She felt like her father had just discovered a new training scroll. After a moment, she got up and hobbled into the house.

Kasumi greeted her casually as she entered the kitchen. Then she got a good look at her and exclaimed, "Ranma! What happened to you?"

"Kunou Kodachi decided I was trying to seduce my natural self," she said.

"Let me help you," the older girl said.

"I just need some hot water," Ranma said.

"Do you want to wait a few minutes for a kettle or would you like to use the furo?" Kasumi asked.

"I'll wait," the redhead replied. "I don't feel up to climbing the stairs. That lunatic really worked over my hips."

Ranma waited in awkward silence as she really did not know what to say to her nominal fiancée. Five minutes later, the kettle was hot enough and Ranma gratefully took it and changed back to her natural form.

He sighed in relief as his ki gathered in his bruises and cuts. He thanked Kasumi and exited to the dojo. Somehow, Ryouga had made it back to the dojo without getting lost and was once again training Akane.

He scowled at the Lost Boy. "I appreciate that you got Kodachi to stop beating on my girl form, but did you really have to be such a jerk about it?"

"You're one to talk, Ranma," Ryouga said smugly. "How many times did you tease me as you _graciously_ led me to and from school."

Ranma admitted to himself that Ryouga was right, but he would never say it out loud. He just snorted instead. He walked to the other side of the dojo and started to do kata to work out the stiffness from his bruises.

Akane seemed to be doing better at her Rhythmic Gymnastics routines. As soon as he had that thought, Akane tumbled to the ground. She grimaced and said, "I think I rolled my ankle."

Dr. Tofu made a house call and agreed with Akane's self diagnosis. "You're ankle is sprained. You're a fast healer though. If you stay off it for three days, you should be good as new."

"I have a Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics meet tomorrow," Akane complained. "The school is counting on me."

Akane looked pleadingly at Ranma.

He held up his hands. "Don't look at me. There's no way that I could keep up with Kodachi as a girl."

Both of them turned to look at Ryouga. "What? No way!" he exclaimed. "I don't even go to Furinkan!"

"I don't think anyone at school will care as long as you win," said Akane.

Ranma smirked, slapping him on the back. "Good luck, Ryouko."

"Ryouko!?" Ryouga exclaimed.

"You can't expect your 'sister' to have the same name as you, do you?" Ranma said, still smirking.

"Does your 'sister' have a name?" he demanded.

"Mine is named Ranmi," Ranma responded.

"Maybe I want to be Ryoumi," Ryouga said.

"Sure," Ranma said. "knockoff."

Ryouga growled.

"Don't worry, Ryouko," Ranma said. "I'm sure you'll do great."

* * *

Ranma begged off of going to the Gymnastics meet the next day. He had no desire to spend any time close to the Kunou girl. He expected that Ryouga would have little trouble with her.

When Akane and Ryouga returned from the meet, 'Ryouko' was fuming.

"Do you have any idea what that lunatic put me through?" she growled.

"Can't be anything worse than what she did to me," Ranma muttered.

"That's true," Ryouga said, smirking.

Ranma frowned. The Lost Boy was not supposed to be so happy about it. Deciding that trying to follow Ryouga's mental processes was folly, he rolled his eyes.

"Did you win at least?" he asked.

"Do you really have to ask?" Ryouga said.

"Well, you could have gotten lost and wandered out of bounds," Ranma said, smirking.

"Don't you two ever grow up?" Akane complained.

The two cursed boys looked at her sheepishly.

"I'm going to get some hot water, so I can change," Ryouga said.

"I'll lead you to the kitchen," Ranma said. "If you get lost before tomorrow, I'll never here the end of it."

They continued to snipe at each other until it was time to turn in for the night.


	10. Chapter 10: Winning and Losing

The next morning, Ranma led Ryouga over to the High School for their match. They had kept it a secret, so only Akane came with them. The last thing the three of them wanted was Nabiki gathering a crowd in order to run a betting ring.

"Remember the deal," Ranma told his so-called rival. "You keep your bandanas well clear of Akane and anyone else that shows up."

"I would never do that to her," Ryouga protested.

"My experience says otherwise," Ranma said.

"Did you come here to insult me or to fight?" Ryouga sneered.

"Hold your horses, Ryouga," he answered. "I came to fight. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. This is a fight for bragging rights, correct? Neither one of us is going to end up in the hospital or the morgue, right?"

"What? Scared?" Ryouga sneered.

Ranma snorted. "I just wanted to make sure you're a martial artist and not a _ninja_." He said the last word with distaste.

"You take that back, Ranma! I'm more of a martial artist than you are!"

"I'm not the one who goes around threatening to kill people," Ranma said with a smirk, crossing his arms.

"You take trash talk too seriously, Ranma," Ryouga said.

"I take things to seriously?" Ranma said, arching an eyebrow.

"Enough talk!" Ryouga proclaimed. "Let's fight!"

"Bring it, Blondie," Ranma said, continuing his campaign to get under the other boy's skin.

Ryouga scowled at the reference to his curse. "At least my other half can fight, Red!" he retaliated, launching a punch at the sometimes redhead.

Ranma dodged the strike. "You would be the type to rub that in, wouldn't you, Blondie?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryouga said, trying to hit him again. "You're the one who brought up my curse first."

Ranma dodged again, landing on top of the other boy's head. "I haven't ridiculed you a tenth of the amount that you've ridiculed me for my curse, Ryouga. If I recall, you threatened to splash me whenever we fought. Said I wasn't a worthy rival anymore."

Ryouga withdrew his umbrella from his pack and swiped at him, forcing him to jump off. "How dare you complain about that, Mr. Anything Goes!"

Ranma slipped inside the other boy's guard and struck his hand, causing him to release the umbrella. "Maybe I do get caught up in my fights—just a little bit, but it's all I know, okay? Pop has never let me do anything else. How sad is my life when _you_ are my second closest friend before coming here?"

"At least _you_ have had another friend," Ryouga said with a sneer. "How sad is it that _you_ have been the closest thing I've had to a friend before coming here."

"Really?" Ranma said. He hopped back and looked at the other boy. "My situation is Pop's fault. What's your excuse?"

Ryouga flung a spread of three bandanas at him. "You have to ask that? Nobody wants to be friends with the poor, stupid Lost Boy. Even if they did, I would always get lost whenever they wanted to do something."

Ranma dodged and closed with his rival again. He deflected a blow—which still hurt—and snapped a side-kick at the sometimes blonde. Ryouga grunted, but held firm. The Lost Boy launched another strike, which Ranma dodged.

"That's why I don't get why you always got so mad at me," Ranma said. "Didn't I help you get where I needed to go? I liked hanging out with you. You're one of the toughest guys I know. Very few can hang with me in a fight like you can."

"I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies then, Red," Ryouga said, jumping backward to land next to his umbrella. He kicked it up into his hand. "You were always teasing me and making fun of my getting lost."

"Pop says that's part of fighting," Ranma said as Ryouga charged him with the umbrella. He hopped on top of the umbrella as Ryouga swung it. "You get your opponent mad and get an advantage from it."

"Who's the _ninja_ now, Ranma?" Ryouga sneered. "By your own prior admission, your father is a poor example to follow."

"I'm finding that out more and more," Ranma said with a sigh.

Ryouga threw the umbrella, forcing him to leap off. "And what was with you taking the last bread every lunch?" Ryouga said. "Just because you can bounce around like a monkey doesn't mean you should take it every time!"

Ranma snorted. "That bread was often the only thing I had to eat. Pop would steal my food in the name of training and he was always too cheap to actually give me any money to buy more."

Ranma dodged the return arc of the umbrella as Ryouga said, "Well, my parents were hardly ever home due to the family curse. I often didn't get enough food either."

Ranma laughed. "Maybe we have more in common than I thought. Friends?" He hopped back.

Ryouga glared at him. "Only if you apologize for making fun of me."

"I will if you apologize for blaming me for your problems," Ranma returned, matching his glare.

"Fine!" Ryouga exclaimed.

"Fine," Ranma said.

"You first," Ryouga said.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I apologize for making fun of your family curse, Ryouga."

Ryouga stared at him and then said, "I apologize for blaming you for not waiting for our fight, Ranma."

They stared at each other, trying to judge the sincerity of the other before Ryouga said, "I'm not going to go easy on you, even though we've buried the hatchet."

Ranma laughed. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He leaped toward his rival.

The fight continued for another half hour. Ranma dodged most of Ryouga's strikes, but the other boy made him pay whenever he had to block. The sometimes redhead managed to strike at the sometimes blonde much more frequently, but his strikes were not as hard. In the end, Ranma prevailed.

Ryouga lay flat on his back, too worn out to get up. Ranma stood nearby, trying not to show how hard the other boy had driven him. He worked through some cool-down stretches.

"I'll get you next time, Ranma," Ryouga said, huffing.

" _Sure_ you will, Ryouga," Ranma said, smirking.

"I thought you were trying to stop with the taunting," Ryouga complained.

Ranma realized that Ryouga was right. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, buddy. Pop drilled it into me. I don't think I can stop cold turkey." He grinned. "Besides, trash talking is a time-honored tradition of martial arts, right?"

"Okay, Red," Ryouga said with a smirk as he sat up. "Just as long as you don't go overboard."

"Sure, Blondie."

"That was pretty intense," Akane said. "I'm a little bit jealous of both of you."

"Thanks, Akane," Ranma said. "Both of us have done little except train. I don't know if you'd want to sacrifice what we've sacrificed to get this good."

"Judging by what I've heard that your father put you through, I think you might be right," she said. "I do wish Dad would train me more. He hasn't really trained me for years."

Ranma thought about it. "If you continue to make progress in controlling your temper," he said. "I'll train you. Pop wants me to be a dojo instructor. I might as well make sure it's something I want to do."

"I'll help too, Akane," Ryouga said shyly.

"I'd like that," she responded. "Thanks, both of you."

Ranma and Akane head back to the Tendou home. They assumed that Ryouga was following them, but realized he had gotten lost somewhere along the way.

* * *

That afternoon, while Ranma was practicing in the dojo, Akane came to see him. "My ankle's all better," she said. "I want to go do something fun."

"Like what?" Ranma said.

"Ice skating," she said.

"Not interested," he replied.

"Come on!" she pleaded. "Kasumi's busy. My school friends aren't home. Please!"

"And Nabiki?" he prodded.

She snorted. "She would charge me to go with her _and_ make me pay her fees!"

"Didn't we decide that going out together was a bad idea?" he said. "The fathers might think it was a date."

"Not if you went as a girl, Red," she said with a smirk.

"No way!" he protested.

"Please!" she pleaded, her eyes widening. "I hate going alone." Ranma was familiar with the look, having used it to good effect a few times in China after the curse, when it was safe, in order to get extra helpings from food vendors. It worked on just about any male other than his father. This, unfortunately, did not shield him from its effects.

"Fine," he said with a sigh. He knew he was going to regret this, but he was trying to be friendly with Akane.

They went to the kitchen to get some water. Kasumi was working on a shopping list. She raised an eyebrow as Ranma doused himself and changed to his other form.

"You going somewhere?" she asked.

"We're going ice skating!" Akane exclaimed.

"Oh, you can't go out like that!" Kasumi exclaimed. "Especially not to do something athletic! Wait just a moment."

She ran up to her room and then came back down a few minutes later holding a garment. She handed it to Ranma. "Go put this on under your shirt."

"What is it?" Ranma asked confused.

"A sports bra," she said with a smile.

Ranma dropped it like she had been burned. "I can't wear that!" she exclaimed.

Kasumi knelt down to pick it up and held it out to the redhead. "You can't not wear it, Ranma."

"But I'm really a guy!" she protested.

Kasumi shook her head. "Be that as it may, you are currently a girl in body and you should wear something so that you don't attract the wrong kind of attention. You wouldn't want to be seen as one of _that_ type of girl would you?"

Ranma shuddered.

Kasumi smiled. "You wouldn't want to damage Akane's reputation either would you, by being seen with her?" she pressed on. "Besides, the support will help you not be so sore when you're done."

"But what if I change back while wearing it!" Ranma protested. "You've seen how water seeks me out!"

"Does that happen with hot water?" Kasumi asked.

"It hasn't happened yet," Ranma admitted, "but it could!"

Kasumi looked sympathetic. "It would be different if everyone knew you were really a boy, but you don't seem to want anyone to know."

Ranma shuddered again. It would be different if her curse was like Ryouga's, but as it was. . .

She turned to Akane. "That reminds me, when we're with people who don't know about the curse, call me Ranmi. I'll pretend to be my own sister."

Akane nodded in acknowledgement.

Ranma tried to ignore Kasumi, but she simply stood there, smiling at her, holding out the hated garmet.

Ranma finally grabbed the bra and went up to her room to put it on, grumbling all the way. Kasumi was hard for her to read. She did not know if the woman was trying to emasculate her fiancé as a type of revenge for getting herself engaged to her or if she was trying to be helpful.

Ranma's girl form's breasts were not huge, but they were prominent because she was so slender. She took off her shirt and undershirt and slipped on the bra. The undershirt had been absolutely necessary once she had gotten the curse so that her "attributes" did not show through the thin silk of her preferred garments. She frowned. Being constrained by the bra was slightly uncomfortable, although it was becoming less so. She thought about not putting her undershirt back on, but decided to do it anyway in case she needed it later. She put her silk shirt back on and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. She was pleased to note that the jiggling in her chest was damped down. That was the worst thing about her girl form other than the loss of ki—all the extra jiggling and bouncing threw off her movements. She looked in the mirror and noticed that the sports bra de-emphasized her bust. She had been worried that it would do the opposite after overhearing some girls talk about bras "enhancing" theirs. She sighed and decided it was worth it. Plus, nobody should see it underneath her two shirts.

She walked downstairs where she met with the Tendou sisters.

"Doesn't that feel better?" Kasumi asked.

"Yes and no," Ranma said. "I like that it stops the bouncing when I walk, but it feels a little tight."

"You'll get used to it in no time," Kasumi assured her. "Sports bras are designed to be more restrictive. Other types of bras are better for comfort when you're not being active."

"Not if I can help it," Ranma muttered. She swore a mirthful twinkle appeared in Kasumi's eyes.

As she and Akane left, she asked the other girl, "Did I just get pranked by Kasumi or was she trying to be nice?"

Akane giggled. "Sometimes it's hard to tell and the rest of the time I think it's both at once. I can't belief you fell for her doe eyes. Doesn't your curse make you immune to that?"

"I can't help it!" Ranma exclaimed. She looked over at Akane and smirked. "You can't tell me you don't find yourself doing what Kasumi wants."

Akane frowned. "That's different. She practically raised me and is more mother than older sister to me. What's your excuse? I thought you weren't treating the engagement seriously right now."

"It's not because of the engagement," Ranma protested. "She just has a way of looking at you that makes you want to avoid disappointing her."

Akane laughed. "I know, right? She can even get Nabiki to fold, sometimes."

They continued to talk as they walked to the ice rink. Ranma found herself enjoying having a friend and was glad that she had made up with Akane. She was also glad that the engagement was not their to interfere with them just having fun.

At the ice rink, Ranma found that she had no idea what size skates to rent, since she had never bought shoes for her girl form—she had usually made do with one-size-fits-all booties, since the curse. Luckily, Akane guessed to within a size, what she should try, so she only had to try on two pairs.

Once on the ice, Ranma found it very hard to balance. She had expected it to be hard since she did not have her ki and she still had not resolved all of her balance issues in her girl body, but it was worse than she thought.

"Come on, Ranmi," Akane said. "Don't stress out so much. Everyone has problems at first."

"Not me," Ranma growled. "At least not normally. Physical stuff like this is usually a snap."

"Really?" Akane said with a giggle. "You've done things similar to ice skating?"

"Well, no," Ranma admitted, "but I usually have near-perfect balance."

"I think you'd be surprised," Akane said. "It's really easy to overcompensate, if you're not used to it. To tell you the truth, I had major problems when I first started coming. I kept fighting my balance in stead of relaxing into it."

"Huh," Ranma muttered.

Eventually, Ranma did get good enough that she could awkwardly skate after Akane without falling down. Akane was a good sport for the most part and only teased her a little bit and did not ditch her.

"See, you're getting it!" Akane said encouragingly. "By next time you'll be skating like a pro!"

"Next time?" Ranma asked dubiously.

"Next time!" exclaimed Akane. "You're not giving up, are you?"

"I don't give up!" Ranma proclaimed.

"Good,"Akane said. "That means there'll be a next time."

Ranma groaned to herself. Somehow, despite her female side's enhanced intelligence, she kept getting talked into things she did not really want to do.

A girl dressed in pink, with more bows than the Senshi, whisked by her, destabilizing her. The girl was clutching a bracelet, and yelling, "You can't have Jean-Luc!"

She was further destabilized by another skater rushing by yelling, "Give me back my bracelet, you thief!"

She had almost toppled over when she found herself supported by an arm and pressed against a muscular chest.

She looked up into a boy's face. He was roughly her age. "I have to apologize for my partner," he said. "She's a bit of a simpleton and simply _must_ have anything she thinks is cute."

"Thank you for stopping me from falling over. . ." Ranma stated

"Sanzenin Mikado," he said. "Half of the famous Golden Pair of Kolholtz High School. And you are?"

"Saotome Ranmi," she replied. "If you could let me go, I'd appreciate it."

"Not before I collect my reward," Mikado said, smirking.

Ranma had a bad feeling about this. People who demanded rewards rarely deserved what they thought they did.

"I've made it my goal to kiss a thousand girls and I only need two more," he boasted.

"No way!" Ranma exclaimed. She tried to free herself, but Sanzenin was too strong. "Help! Akane!"

As Mikado dipped her back farther in order to deny her leverage, his face came down. Her heart beat faster and she started to panic. She hated feeling helpless. She hated the fact that a boy was going to steal her first kiss. Most of all, at that moment, she hated Sanzenin Mikado.

With her anger, her magic came bubbling up. As he kissed her, her shame crystalized her anger. Unlike other times when her magic responded to her emotions, this time she knew how to use it. She focused all of her magic between the two of them and yelled, "Get away!"

She felt her magic release and her body was yanked out of Sanzenin's hands. Her energy left her as her magic exploded out of her. She hit the ground, hard. She felt exhaustion overwhelm her and blackness followed. Her last conscious awareness was of Akane screaming, "Ranma!"


	11. Chapter 11: Second and Third Spells

Ranma awoke slowly, feeling exhausted. He was lying on some kind of bed or futon and was covered by a blanket. He opened his eyes and could tell from his profile under the covers that he was currently still a she. The memory of what had happened at the skating ring returned to her. She looked around and determined that she was probably in Dr. Tofu's clinic. She propped herself up onto her elbows. It took all her strength to do so, so she collapsed back into the bed.

She meditated and examined her internal energies. Only a sliver of her magic remained and what little of her ki was present in her female form was also almost gone. If she were in her normal form, she would recover her ki by eating and resting. She was not sure if the same would work with her magic. If it did not work, she could always change back to normal and then recover her ki as a man. Since his ki and her magic were linked, that should recover her magic as well. However, it was best to check with an expert. She did not know if her low magic level would effect the curse.

She reached inside her shirt and pulled out her moon medallion. She held it in the palm of her hand and said, "Hermes."

 _Hello, Ranmi_ , she heard Hermes's voice inside her head. _If it's inconvenient to talk out loud, you can simply think at the medallion._

Ranma tried it out. _I managed to deplete all my magic in one go and knocked myself out._

 _We felt a wild outburst from you six hours ago_ , the warrior of Mercury said. _We would have come, but none of your friends or family know us and the diagnostics on your medallion said that you were alright—just exhausted. I've been monitoring you, just to make sure. You're at a clinic now?_

 _I think so_ , she responded. _It looks familiar to me._

 _What happened?_ Hermes asked.

Ranma hesitated. He had not told the Senshi much about his personal life, but he felt that he could trust them for the most part. They seemed fairly kind and nonjudgemental. He also felt that—unlike her father—they would not hold her getting kissed against her.

 _My father and I live with a man and his three daughters_ , Ranma said. _I was out ice skating in my girl form with one of the daughters and this really sleazy jerk kissed me. I lost it and pushed him away from me with my magic_.

 _It was uncontrolled and instinctive, wasn't it?_ Hermes said.

 _Yeah_.

 _If you don't mind, Selene, Kronus, and I wanted to come see you_ , Hermes said. _We're pretty sure you will be fine with rest and food, but visiting you in person would be better than relying on remote diagnostics._

 _That would be fine,_ Ranma said. _Just don't come in your sailor uniforms. I don't need the grief Pop would give me if he knew any of my teachers dressed like that._

Hermes laughed and said, _Okay, Ranmi. We'll be by in about half an hour._

Ranma slipped her medallion back under her shirt and relaxed back into the bed. With nothing to do, she slipped in and out of sleep. She started to full consciousness when she heard a knock on her door.

"Good evening, Ranma," said Dr. Tofu from the doorway. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Ranma replied.

"That stands to reason," the doctor said. "Your ki reserves were pretty much emptied—what little this form of yours has. Akane told me what happened, but I'd like you to tell me from your point of view. Is that alright?"

Unlike with Hermes, Ranma was extremely reluctant to admit to Tofu that Sanzenin had kissed her. Even though she did not think that her older friend would judge her, admitting to another man that a man had kissed her—even when she was a girl—was too embarrassing. She felt her face flush and she ducked under the covers. A minute later she peaked and found that Dr. Tofu was still there, waiting patiently. Her actions made her feel even more embarrassed.

Finally, she said, "There was a boy at the ice rink that I went to with Akane. He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. I pushed him away with my magic—at least that's what I call the energy that replaced my ki in this form. I must have panicked, because I didn't control it very well. I seem to have used up all of it to the point of draining what little ki I have in this form too."

Dr. Tofu nodded. "That matches what Akane told me too. She mentioned that she's seen you do a visual display before, but it didn't actual have any external effect before. Has anything changed since then?"

Ranma nodded, relieved that Tofu was not going to make a big deal about what Sanzenin did to her. "I found some teachers that could teach me how to use it. I'm still a beginner, but I can cause one effect reliably."

Tofu smiled. "I'm glad you're getting training, Ranma. Draining yourself like this is not healthy. Once you get control of this 'magic,' I hope you'll be able to avoid doing that." He paused. "Speaking of that, three young women are in the waiting room, asking for Ranmi or Ranma; they claim to be your teachers, but I don't recognize them from Furinkan High. Could they be your magic instructors?"

"I've been going by Ranmi in public when I'm a girl, Doc," Ranma said. "I'd rather people think my girl form was my sister than that they know about the curse. My magic instructors are three women: a blonde named Selene, a blue-haired woman named Hermes, and a purple-haired woman named Kronus."

"That's them," Dr. Tofu said. "Would you like me to let them see you?"

She nodded. "That would be for the best, Doc. Thanks."

Dr. Tofu nodded and exited the room. A minute or so later he returned with Ranma's three magic instructors and then left them in her room.

"Hey, Ranmi," Selene said. "I hear you had a spot of trouble."

Ranma snorted. "Par for the course with me. Do you think if I wore a shirt that said 'Not interested in boys' it would help?"

Selene laughed, but Kronus said, "Poseidon says that it makes a not insubstantial number of men try harder. She says they think you just haven't seen the right one yet."

"She has a curse too?" Ranma asked curiously.

Kronus laughed. "She doesn't see it that way."

"Huh?" Ranma said.

"She and Caelus like women the same way most women like men," Kronus said.

"That's weird," Ranma said. She had no idea how that would even work and was scared to ask. Ranma's life up to now had revolved almost entirely around martial arts. She had only started to think about things like relationships due to the enforced engagements. For the most part she had accepted that she was female about half the time. The nature of her curse meant that she could not pretend it was only cosmetic. However, the thought of anyone, even a girl, doing _that_ to her as a girl seriously freaked her out. What little she had thought about _that_ had determined that when she was ready for _it_ , her preferences were definitely for women, but only as a man.

"You're one to talk about weird, _Ranmi_ ," Kronus said, amused.

"I'm fully aware of how much beyond weird my situation is," Ranma said wryly.

Hermes coughed politely. "Why don't you tell us what happened, Ranmi."

Ranma described her ice skating encounter to her three teachers.

"I think this is a case where you know just enough to get yourself into trouble," Hermes said. "This is a clear case of magical exhaustion caused by putting too much magic into an unformed spell. This type of problem will be naturally be less possible as you train your magic."

Ranma sighed. "That's a relief."

She thought about her other recent encounter. "I think I've spotted another problem, however." She explained her encounter with Kodachi as a girl. This led to explaining all of her encounters with the Kunous.

"My problem is that I'm too slow with my magic," Ranma explained. "I managed to get off my shield spell, but that put me behind the curve and I was too slow to keep up after that."

Hermes tapped her chin thoughtfully. "The best solution to your problem is to prepare your spells ahead of time. You can set them up to trigger automatically in certain situations. The best way to do this is to use a physical object as a focus."

"Like a piece of jewelry or wizard's staff?" Ranma asked.

"You can do it that way," said Hermes, "but you run the risk of never being able to use the spell if you lose that specific focus. A more flexible way is to make the focus a reusable design."

"You mean like an ofuda?" the redhead asked. She had seen the paper strips that Shinto temples purported would give good luck or exorcize evil spirits.

"That's one example," the blue-haired Senshi said. "Ares occasionally uses those. Paper is good for one-off spells. If it's one that you continuously use on yourself, etching it into metal or leather is better. Or you can embroider it into fabric. However, the same warning for written or drawn foci is true as for spoken foci, if it's something common you dilute your focus or tempt an accidental trigger. It's tempting to use kanji as foci. It's doable, but you want to embellish them or incorporate other designs into your foci as well so that you aren't using your focus when you don't intend to."

Ranma nodded thoughtfully. "Say I wanted to make a forcefield that triggered when an object with a certain momentum or greater approached me and I've engraved an appropriate focus onto the inside of a bracer I wear. How would I make it trigger?"

Hermes smiled. "You would gather your intent like normal, but instead of releasing it, you would force it into your focus and store it there. The trick to making an automatic trigger is to imprint the trigger into your intent. It takes a little bit more practice than doing an instantaneous spell, but we can help you with it once you're back to normal. We'll start with simply storing a spell and then moving on to automatic triggers."

"That would be great," Ranma said, relieved. She had started to worry that she would not be able to use magic when facing people like Kodachi or Ryouga. "How long do you think it will take me to recover? Should I change back to my normal form to recover quicker?"

"From my study of your curse," Hermes said, "it should take your female form the same time to recover an equivalent amount of magic as it takes your male form to recover ki. I don't see any issue with you transforming."

Ranma sighed in relief.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted from the hall. "Dr. Tofu said you were awake!" A moment later she burst into the room. "Oh," she said when she saw that Ranma had visitors, embarrassed by her outburst. She bowed to the redhead's visitors. "Excuse me."

Dr. Tofu followed her into the room. He shook his head. "I was about to tell you that Ranma had visitors, Akane."

"It's alright," Selene said. "We were pretty much done talking to her. We'll meet you at the usual place and time on Monday, okay, Ranmi?"

"That would be great," Ranma said.

The three Senshi and Dr. Tofu left the room, leaving her alone with Akane.

"What was that about?" Akane asked, a slight tinge of suspicion in her voice.

"They've been teaching me how to use the mental energy that's replaced my ki when I'm a girl," Ranma answered. "I'm not very good at it yet, but they've been a lot of help."

The other girl's face brightened with interest. "Is that what happened with that Sanzenin creep?"

Ranma nodded. "I was too angry and err, startled to do it correctly though, so I put too much of my energy into it. That's why I passed out."

"I'm glad your okay," Akane said.

"Thanks," Ranma responded.

"What have they taught you?" Akane asked, curious.

"I've really only been able to make a small shield to protect myself, but it's pretty limited. However, we have some other ideas on what I can teach myself to do."

They chatted for a while longer before Akane had to go. Ranma was feeling a little bit stronger, so she got up out of her bed and made her way to the sink and got some hot water to change herself back to normal. Tofu came back in with a tray of food which he gratefully accepted.

* * *

By bedtime, Ranma had mostly recovered, but Dr. Tofu had him stay overnight and stay home from school the next morning, which was Monday. By noon, Ranma was chomping at the bit to be up and about and Dr. Tofu let him go. He filled the time until he was supposed to meet the Senshi by practicing first martial arts and then magic.

When she met her magic instructors at the normal time and place, Selene said, "I told you that we would be reducing our time together. However, it seems you need the 'crash course' due to how chaotic your life is, so we'll keep doing daily sessions for now."

"I learn best that way anyway," Ranma said with a smirk.

"What would you like our help with?" Hermes asked.

"Three things," Ranma said. "I'd like help in setting up a triggered armor spell. I'd also like to learn the storage spell you mentioned and get started on my body-enhancement spells, especially a healing one."

Hermes tapped her lips. "I'd really prefer that you learn more of your concept spells before we teach you the storage spell. How about we teach it to you after you learn three mind spells and three body spells. For the other two, we can help you with them."

Ranma frowned but said, "Okay." A storage spell, especially one that kept hot water hot, would be especially helpful, but if Hermes thought it would mess up how much power she could manifest in the future, she would be patient.

"Have you thought about what you want to use as a focus?" Hermes asked.

"I like the idea of using symbols since it gives me more flexibility," Ranma said.

"I would caution against using kanji, kana, or romanji," Hermes said.

"I was thinking about using romanji since my spoken spells are going to be Latin based," Ranma admitted.

"Keeping a consistent basis for your foci is good," her teacher said, "but romanji are used a bit too commonly here in Japan and if you ever leave Japan, you might be in trouble."

She handed her a laminated card that titled "Greek Letters." It had three groups of symbols on them, what was evidently Greek, romanji, and katakana.

"I would recommend using groups of about three Greek letters as the basis of your written foci. Greek letters are similar in most cases to romanji, but distinct enough to not get you into trouble. They're used nowadays only for scientific symbols, which is why I recommend using at least three, ancient European literature, and the modern Greek language which is only really used in Greece and Cyprus. Unless you want to specialize in Greek or ancient history, it's unlikely to cause you problems."

Ranma laughed. "Little to no chance of that."

The letters looked easy enough to draw, it would just take a small amount of practice. "I can easily manage these. Is it really necessary to be this cautious though?"

Selene smiled. "It's not. Not really. Hermes is just recommending 'best practices' so that you don't run into issues later. For instance, if you weren't cautious you could find that you couldn't take a job in America because you picked a spell focus that would trigger writing or speaking a common English word. Right now, you don't have any plans to move to America, but we don't want to limit your choices."

Ranma shrugged. She did not quite see the point, but it was not that hard to humor them.

"I was thinking of using the Latin word 'tegmen' as a basis for the focus of my new armor spell," she said.

Hermes nodded. "I'd recommend using τ, γ, and μ or ν or both as the written part of your focus. You also might add some ornamentation. If the ornamentation also represents the intent of your spell it will strengthen the spell."

Ranma brought out a little notebook and drew a breast plate and wrote "τγμν" inside it.

Selene smiled at her. "That's a nice, simple design."

Hermes nodded. "We can practice with the simple drawing and then put the design on something more permanent."

"What would you recommend?" Ranma asked.

"Something you wouldn't mind wearing all the time," Kronus said, "but probably not clothes since you can't get away with wearing the same ones all the time."

Ranma took off the leather bracer that she frequently wore and handed it to Hermes. "Would inscribing it on the inside of this work?"

"How would you inscribe it?" Hermes asked.

Ranma frowned. She would need to use a knife, stamp, or some sort of burner. It would be pretty hard to do on the inside with anything other than a stamp, but that would require a specialized stamp to be made. If she could turn it inside out, that would make it easier, but the leather was pretty stiff. "I'm not sure. I'd rather not have it on the outside and putting it on the inside would be tough."

"We have a gift for you, Ranmi," Selene said. "We won't be offended if you don't want to use it, but we figured that you could use it if you couldn't think of anything else." She tossed her a small bag. Inside were what looked like about 20 100-yen coin blanks. They were not the exact size or thickness, but they looked like the same material. Each one had a small hole near the edge.

"Coins?" Ranma asked.

"Sort of," Kronus said. She handed Ranma a small wooden case. Inside were four tools. They looked a little bit like screwdrivers, but the had rounded handles and came to a point. The size of each point was different between each of the tools. "These are gravers or burins. They're used for engraving. The coins are a cupronickel, which is ductile enough to engrave fairly easily, but is also pretty durable. This particular alloy is used in the 50- and 100-yen coins."

"If you do use these," Hermes said, "you should consider using something else, such as a drawing on paper as an alternate medium for practice, so that the material and shape of the coins don't become an integral part of your focus." She also handed Ranma a page-sized thin sheet of the same metal. "For practice engraving. If you want more of the coins, we can get them for you pretty cheaply."

"Thanks guys," Ranma said sincerely. The number of gifts she had received in her life was small so she appreciated this one.

"It's our pleasure," Selene said. "You've been an excellent student and we enjoy teaching you."

The method for "storing" a spell for later was pretty simple in theory, but difficult in practice. Ranma had to gather her intent and then push it into the drawing she had made while specifying the trigger phrase. She did have the advantage that it was easy for her to tell if she had actually put magic into her drawing with her third eye.

After two hours of practice, Ranma had managed to store a small amount of magic into the paper drawing. She released it with the command, "Tegumeni."

She felt a small amount of magic surround her skin. Looking at it with her third eye she could tell that it was there. She nodded to Kronus who threw a weak punch at her. The invisible armor absorbed the punch but dispersed in the process.

"It worked," Ranma said, "but I don't know how useful that will actually be."

"Remember, Ranmi," Selene said. "It takes a bunch of practice to get a spell down. As you keep doing it, it will get a lot stronger. You're making excellent progress."

"I guess," Ranma said. "I just hate having to start over from scratch like this."

"Think of how much more 'well rounded' you'll be from the different perspectives your curse makes you see," Selene said.

Ranma rolled her eyes. "I was perfectly fine without the experience, but thanks for trying to point out the silver lining."

* * *

To Ranma's relief, the next few days were pretty calm. Nothing noteworthy happened at school or at the Tendous. He practiced engraving, having decided to use the coins that the Senshi had given him. It was easier to do as a man, due to his greater arm strength and better hand-eye coordination. It took him filling up most of one side of the practice sheet and wasting a few of the blanks, but he was able to make a couple of good-looking copies of his armor design after several days. Luckily it seemed that doing the engraving as a male did not effect the coins' usefulness as a foci.

By the end of Tuesday's magic practice, Ranma had managed to get the armor spell decent enough that it took two hard punches from one of his teachers before it dispersed. Ranma figured it would take her several more days to get it good enough to use in an actual fight.

Wednesday they started work on her first healing spell. She wanted to make a spell that stimulated the body to heal itself—similar to ki healing.

"Were you going to use this spell on yourself?" Hermes asked.

Ranma nodded and said, "Yes. It's actually primarily for me, since I can't seem to stop getting hurt. I thought doing this kind of spell would be easier since I'm already familiar with it."

Hermes nodded. "That's generally a good idea, however, in this case I want to caution you that it might not work."

"What!?" Ranma exclaimed. "Why not?"

"If it's too similar to ki healing, your curse may turn it into magic rather than physical energy," she explained.

Ranma's shoulders slumped. One of the ideas she had had was to enhance herself physically so that she could still do high-level martial arts as a woman. "Do you really think that could happen?"

"It's a definite possibility," Hermes said seriously. "The fact is that not only does the curse convert almost all of your ki to magic, but it makes the remaining ki inaccessible. I think that the sorceresses that created the template that your curse is based off of purposely sacrificed physical ability for magic and mental ability. It's something that we should definitely experiment with, but I think we should start you off with a spell that we're sure will work on you."

Ranma grumbled, but agreed. She flipped through her dictionary to find an appropriate phrase. She decided on "coirei" which was based on the latin verb meaning to mend. She was pairing the word with a gesture of putting her left hand over her heart with her ring and middle fingers turned in while touching near the wound with her right hand.

Selene gave herself a small cut so that she could test it. When she protested, the Moon Senshi just shrugged and said, "Kronus and I can both heal it. It's not a big deal."

"We want you to practice your spells on someone else, preferably one of us, before you try them on yourself," Hermes said seriously. "If you make a mistake on yourself when there's no one to help, it could lead to big problems."

Ranma did not like it, but agreed.

By the end of the practice, Ranma was able to make the cut scab over.

"That's good progress, Ranmi," Kronus said. "With more practice you'll easily be able to make a wound that size disappear entirely using that spell."

By Friday, Ranma was able to completely cure small cuts and bruises with her mend spell and her armor spell could take five solid hits. She figured that it would only take one of Ryouga's but she did not see the Lost Boy/Girl fighting her in her girl form now that they had more or less reconciled. Kodachi was still an issue, however. She resolved to get her teacher's help in figuring out how to activate individual armor spells so that she could carry more than one at a time.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** You can see a 100-yen coin and its dimensions in the Japanese yen Wikipedia article.


	12. Chapter 12: The Cat is Out of the Bag

Saturday after the half day of school, Ranma spent most of the afternoon with her magic teachers figuring out her first offensive spell. Its use name was Arrow and it was triggered by saying the phrase "sapicu" and pointing at the target with all of her fingers except the middle one. It shot a bolt of force at the target, the intensity of the spell could vary from a light tap to a very solid punch depending on the amount of intent she put into the magic. With practice she could make it very formidable.

With this spell, she was satisfied for now with the "mind" aspect of her magic, but she needed more "body" spells. She had decided that getting an offensive spell was more important at the moment, but she was anxious to get closer to the point where she could learn the storage spell so she could easily carry around hot water.

After saying goodbye to her three sensei, she left the park and headed to the Tendou home.

"Hi," a cheerful, but heavily accented voice called out. "You is girl with panda man, no? This one saw you at Joketsuzoku village. This one is called Shampoo."

She turned to see the purple-haired girl from the Amazon village. This girl's hair was quite a bit lighter than Kronus's even thought they both had a purple color.

"Yes," Ranma said. "I remember you. My name's Ranmi. I saw you fight that other girl. You were pretty good."

"You warrior too?" asked the Amazon doubtfully.

Ranma frowned. She did not like being dismissed. However, the girl's assumption was true enough, so she said, "I used to be a Martial Artist, but a training accident took that away from me. My twin brother is still one of the best, so I still pay attention."

"This one looking for someone," Shampoo said, cheerfully ignoring Ranma's explanation. "You help?"

"Sure," Ranma said. "Who are you looking for?"

"Straw-haired lost girl," Shampoo said. "You know?"

It figured that she would know Ryouga. He'd probably met tons of people in his wanderings.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "I know Ryouko. She shows up around here sometimes, but it's hard to pin her down. If you see a confused-looking boy the same age with an umbrella and the same style of bandana, that's her brother Ryouga. He can take a message for her."

"Is brother?" Shampoo asked suspiciously. "Why she wear his clothes?"

Ranma shook her head. Is that the only thing girls noticed about their curses? "I don't know," she said. "You'll have to ask one of them. They're both pretty hard to track down, so I wish you luck."

"Okay," Shampoo said. "Thank you, panda girl." The Amazon dashed off.

Ranma frowned. That was _not_ a nickname she wanted assigned to her.

* * *

Sunday afternoon found Ranma working on her homework in the Tendou's main room in girl form. It kind of felt like cheating to do so, but she was actually learning the material more effectively than she would in her normal form, so she ignored the feeling. Akane and Nabiki were in their rooms and Kasumi was in the kitchen. Both fathers were out getting an early start on drinking.

She felt something graze her leg. She looked down and shrieked. It was a cat! She scrambled away until she was backed into the corner of the room. The beast looked at her before approaching slowly and curiously.

Kasumi rushed in the room. "Ranma? What's wrong?"

"Cat!" she stammered. "Get it away!"

Kasumi gathered up the cat and gently petted it. "This is Hanchiyo. Our neighbors asked us to watch her for them. She's a very gentle cat. You don't have to be scared of her."

"I'm not scared of it," Ranma lied. "Just take it away. Please." Ranma was struggling not to whimper. She tried to focus her magic, but was too upset to manage it. This had the effect of heightening her fear. Without her ki she did not think the cat fist would work and she had nothing to protect herself with.

Kasumi slowly approached. The cat was purring under her ministrations. Ranma shuddered. The purr was how they tricked you into thinking they were harmless.

"Please take it away, Kasumi," Ranma whimpered, abandoning the pretense of not being afraid.

"I'm holding her tight, Ranma," Kasumi said. "She can't hurt you. Just touch her and see. Then I'll take her away. She's a very nice cat."

"Please, Kasumi," Ranma said, sobbing. "Just take it away. I'll do anything." She curled into a ball.

"Really, Ranma," Kasumi said. "She's just a harmless cat. Just touch her and see. Then I'll take her away. I won't let her hurt you." Kasumi sat down next to her. "The best way to conquer your fears is to confront them."

Ranma hissed at her. Her fear was being overridden by something. It felt a little like the Cat Fist, but subtly different. The cat hissed in alarm and tried to get away from Kasumi.

"Ranma!?" Kasumi said, finally alarmed. "What's going on?"

Ranma hissed at her again. Her magic bubbled up and carried her out of her body. She expanded.

The she-her-sire-wanted-her-to-mate yelped and backed away. The enemy ran away. Her supposed mate made human noises at her. Irritation filled her. Why would she mate with someone who ignored her wishes? She ignored the human. Her perspective was different than and she filled the room much more than she normally did. She twitched her ears as she heard more human voices. The violent human was also here as well as the greedy one. She ignored them and looked around for something to do. She saw her human body on still lying in the corner. That had not happened before.

The room was too small for her, so she picked up her human body by its coverings at the back of its neck and carried it toward the door. She examined the door. She doubted that she would fit through it without a lot of squeezing. She batted at it with her paw. Her paw went through the door frame. Her tail whipped around her in pleasure. This would not be as bothersome as she had thought. She shoved the door open with her paw and walked through it, making sure her human body went through the open space.

She walked over to the fish pond. She idly considered catching a fish to eat, but she felt strangely not hungry. The sun was shining, and she felt sleepy. She deposited her human body on the ground and curled around it.

The angry one started yammering at her. She turned her head away and pointedly ignored the silly thing. The angry one walked through her body, which felt odd, trying to get to her human body. She growled and batted the human away. She smirked. She could make her paws solid when she wanted to.

The angry one started to charge toward her, but her supposed mate spoke calm words and she stopped. All three of the humans sat on the porch watching her. She sniffed. They could watch all they wanted. She relaxed. They would let her sleep if they knew what was good for them.

The sun felt nice. She dozed.

* * *

"Ranma! Ranma!" Ranma awoke to her name being called and gentle shaking.

"What?" she complained. The sun still felt nice.

"That's what I want to know!" Akane said. "What in the world happened?"

Memories of the neighbor's cat and Kasumi trying to get her to touch it flooded back. Very odd memories of what happened afterward also came to her. That had never happened before. Usually she did not remember what happened to her under the Cat Fist. This time she did. . . They were just strange. . . Her entire thought process had been. . . not normal. She had not even followed human speech. She had known what it was. . . she just had not cared enough about human things to interpret it.

All three of the Tendou girls were watching her expectantly. She would rather not have Nabiki here to listen to her talk about the Cat Fist, but could not think of a way to get her to leave and she knew enough to be dangerous. She did _not_ want her experimenting to try and figure out what was going on. Of course, Nabiki almost certainly would not experiment herself; just manipulate someone else into doing it.

"When I was about five or six," Ranma explained slowly, "I don't remember exactly—Pop wasn't big on birthdays—Pop found a training manual for a supposedly invincible technique called the Cat Fist."

Her mouth twisted in distaste. "He should have known better. The procedure was too simple and had nothing to do with Martial Arts. The last page of the manual even had a warning explaining that the procedure was banned and that only an idiot would attempt it." She smiled bitterly. "Pop never even looked at the whole manual—just followed the instructions as he read them. No sacrifice—of mine—was too great to accomplish his goal of being the greatest Martial Arts instructor in the world."

She paused in her story thoughtfully. "Looking back at it, the purpose of the so-called training is obvious: to completely break a person and then when they're broken, imprint certain characteristics on them to make them into an unpredictable, unstoppable killing machine."

Kasumi gasped.

Ranma ignored her and continued grimly. "Pop ignored the implications, caring only that it was an unbeatable technique. The technique is called the Cat Fist. You train it by taking the trainee and wrapping them in fish products and dropping them tied-up into a pit of starving cats. You cover the pit and leave them in there for hours. Pop did it to me. . . I don't actually remember how many times. At least half a dozen times." She laughed bitterly. "Pop is persistent, if nothing else."

She looked at her audience. Kasumi had tears in her eyes. Akane looked furious. Nabiki had a blank expression on her face.

"I can't believe anyone would do that to their own child!" Akane said angrily.

Ranma sighed. "Pop isn't intentionally cruel; he's just incredibly foolish. Pain is part of Martial Arts. Following the manual without understanding what it really did was stupid beyond belief and I wish more than just about anything he hadn't done it, but he was doing it for my benefit."

Akane huffed in response.

"Pop told me later that when I 'learned' the technique, I tore through the lid on the pit like it was tissue and lit into him. I chased him around like prey for hours until I got bored. I don't actually remember any of it. An old woman found me and looked after me until Pop reclaimed me.

"For whatever reason, I don't become a killing machine when I have an episode and I come out of it when I find a safe place to rest. Maybe it's because I was so young or maybe it's because of something inherent in my nature or maybe it's because Pop messed it up somehow. Anyway, if I'm exposed to cats too much, I have a relapse. Pop says I tend to be more playful than vicious when I'm under the effect, but that doesn't mean I'm not dangerous." She looked at them seriously. "I put Pop in the hospital for two weeks the first time. Every other time it's happened, I became incredibly fast and agile. I also had these long claws made of ki that cut through anything with ease. I blank out and wake up surrounded by destruction without knowing what happened." She shuddered.

"So this is the first time that giant red ghost cat has appeared?" Akane asked.

Ranma nodded. "My curse interfered somehow. The Cat Fist uses my ki, so since I don't have any like this, something else happened."

"This torture you went through somehow called down a guardian spirit to protect you since you couldn't do it yourself?" Nabiki said dubiously.

Ranma shrugged. "I don't understand how the Cat Fist works. I've always blacked out, remember? This time I remember some things, but. . ." She shrugged again.

"Ranma, I'm sorry!" Kasumi said tearfully. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't know and I was trying to help. The books I've read say that facing your fears can help you overcome them."

Ranma sighed. "I know you didn't mean anything by it, Kasumi. It's just cats and me. . . It's better not to experiment. I've only ever hurt Pop during an episode, but the property damage is usually bad." She looked around. "Huh. You guys lucked out. If I had been male when this happened, the main room would have been destroyed, if not the entire house."

"Surely you're exaggerating," Nabiki said.

Ranma shrugged. "I'm told my first priority is always to scare away the cat. Without that giant, mostly-intangible projection to do it for me, I'm told I do it by lashing out with my long, incredibly-sharp, invisible claws made out of ki."

Nabiki hummed in thought. "Anything else we should know about, Saotome?"

Ranma shrugged. "I can't think of anything. Usually, even the Cat Fist is not an issue because I can get away from the cat before I have an episode."

 _Ranma? This is Hermes._ She recognized the Senshi's mental communication. _Your magic activated very strongly not long ago. I tried contacting you earlier, but you weren't responsive._

"I want to change back to normal and spend some time alone," Ranma told the Tendou girls. She looked at Kasumi. "I'm not really mad at you, Kasumi. I know you weren't trying to be cruel, but next time, please remember that no means no."

Kasumi nodded, managing to look both relieved and appalled at herself at the same time.

Ranma ran into the house. She grabbed her medallion as soon as she was out of sight. _Hermes? This is Ranma. A condition I have because of some weird Martial Arts training my Pop put me through interacted weirdly with my magic. Can we meet to talk about it?_

* * *

". . .and then I woke up," Ranma said, finishing up explaining the Cat Fist and her new reaction to it to Hermes who had met her at the park.

Hermes sighed and rubbed her temples. "You have the oddest things happen to you, Ranma. And I say this as a reincarnated Warrior of Love and Justice from a long-dead prehistoric empire based on the moon."

"When you say it like that. . ." Ranma grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm also convinced that your father should be locked up for his own safety and yours," the Senshi added. "Honestly. . ."

"Look," Ranma said, "his training is unconventional and it's not been without risk, but other than the Cat Fist and Jusenkyo, it hasn't been that bad."

She stared at him. "The Cat Fist alone is enough to have him thrown in jail for at least ten years."

"I can handle Pop," Ranma insisted.

"Even without your ki?" Hermes asked. "Your magic skills are developing nicely, but they aren't up to handling a Martial Artist of the capability you've described yet."

"Pop is an idiot," Ranma said, "but he isn't going to physically bully me in my girl form. It goes against all of his instincts as a Martial Artist to beat up on those that aren't. Once he figured out how limited I am as a girl he stopped trying to train me in that form."

Hermes sighed. "Okay, Ranma. I'll be guided by you in this for now. If I see signs that he's going to far again, I'll stage an intervention. With all nine of us in full costume, if needed."

Ranma laughed. "That might be worth it just to see his face! His pride couldn't handle being stomped on by a girl—especially with your uniforms!"

Hermes smiled. "Now about this Cat Fist and your fear of cats. . ."

Ranma looked at her warily. "You aren't going to suggest immersion therapy, are you? Because that's been tried and it only makes things worse."

"The Senshi have an auxiliary member that can enter your subconscious and help you deal with the root of the problem," Hermes said.

"Auxiliary member?" he asked.

"Luna and Artemis were advisors to the Queen during the time of the Silver Millennium—where are pasts selfs came from. When the Moon Kingdom fell and the Silver Millennium ended, they were placed in Stasis until we were reincarnated. They helped us learn our powers and find each other."

"Really?" he asked, interested. "So they know what you were like in your past lives?"

Hermes giggled. "Sort of. They were in stasis so long that their memories of that time are patchy at best. I'll call Selene and have her bring Luna over."

"Right now!?" he asked, alarmed.

She nodded seriously. "It's best to handle this as soon as possible."

"I've dealt with it for ten years," Ranma said. "A little longer won't hurt."

Hermes shook her head. "From what you've described, you have a totem—the cat. However, you're at odds with your totem. This is not good. The longer this goes on the more divided your psyche will get and the more difficult it will be to integrate. Fighting your totem means something not good is going on inside your head."

"You haven't talked about totems before," he said. "Are they like an animal spirit attached to you? Do you have one?"

She laughed. "No, totems are not actual spirit animals. They're representative and symbolic tools that help you manipulate your magic. They are psychological constructs your mind develops to help you manipulate your focus and intent. You being at odds with your totem indicates that your psyche is damaged. You both rely on and hate your totem concept. Not healthy."

He frowned. He supposed that when his conscious mind shut down and the Cat Fist took over, it could be that type of situation.

"As far as the Senshi having totems, we don't. Our magic is too tied to the planets for it to manifest totems. However, Luna and Artemis do. It's one of the reasons I've asked her to come."

"Oh?" Ranma asked, interested. "What are their totems?"

She laughed. "They have human totems."

"What!?" he asked. "How does that work."

She laughed again. "Luna and Artemis are aliens from the planet Mau outside the Solar System. They developed human totems to help relate to us."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The Cat Fist makes no sense as a Martial Arts technique training method—which I think was kind of the point. Any non-crack, because let's face it, canon Ranma is pretty much crack, fan fiction has to hand wave it somehow.


End file.
